DVD Review: Rock of Ages

Music can be a terrific way to help tell a story.  It can set the tone better than a 1000 words.  The best part of Rock of Ages is being able to revisit some of the best music of my childhood.  I was too young in the 1980s and not enough of a audiophile since to really know the music, but even I couldn't stop the words that just come to your lips automatically with most of these songs.  There is a very thin plot that the music supports - A young girl, Sherrie (Julianne Hough) arrives in Los Angeles from Oklahoma to pursue her dreams of being a singer.  She meets Drew (Diego Boneta), a bartender at The Bourbon, a famous club owned by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin) and Lonny (Russell Brand) that is playing the final performance of Arsenal, before its lead, Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise) goes on for a solo career.  Dennis is relying on this to save the club, which is in danger of being shut down by the new mayor (Bryan Cranston) and his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) for immoral behavior.

You can't beat the music in this - they use it well, if contrived, to really support the story.  Tom Cruise is surprisingly believable as a cracked metal band singer that has been overwhelmed by his career.  Thankfully, he's not the focus of the story, but rather the anchor around which the others revolve.  The main focus is Sherrie and her lack of career - she ends up dancing on a pole at Mary J. Blige's club - and Drew and his need to be famous for anything.  He had wanted to follow in the footsteps of the hair metal bands, but times were changing and he has to become Drew Z, part of a boy band, thanks to his manager Paul (Paul Giamatti).   Their story is just strong enough with the music to stay interesting, and then thrown in are the parts with Stacee Jaxx and a reporter (Malin Ackerman) from Rolling Stone that he has an affair with.

There's a moment when the whole thing threatens to go off the rails, but the music keeps it together - you know that the scene will change and develop by the time to song or mashup is over, so that's one of the nice things about having the music drive the story, quick turnover and a fast enough pace.  Yes, the story sometimes stops while they sing, but the songs they choose usually drive the story - "Hit me with your best shot" sung by Zeta-Jones and the other church ladies when fighting with The Bourbon and its fans.  Overall, I enjoyed it, but it's awkwardly put together and not exactly a logical story.  Still a nice chance to revisit a lot of music I couldn't have told you I liked, but knew all the words.  Sometimes that's enough.

DVD Review: Compliance

During the first moments of Compliance, the words "Inspired By True Events" appear on screen. Probably because no one would ever believe a screenwriter could make up characters so despicable. But knowing this in advance doesn't help.

The film takes place on a busy Friday night at a fast food restaurant. Tensions run high as the manager, Sandra (Ann Dowd), scrambles around, short-staffed and under-stocked on inventory, when she receives a call from a man identifying himself as a police officer. The caller (Pat Healy) informs her he has a customer of the restaurant at the police station, claiming one of the cashiers took money from the customer's purse. After a vague description, Sandra assumes it must be young Becky (Dreama Walker). Sandra remains on the phone with the caller who smoothly convinces her she must interrogate Becky and then strip search her to find the missing money, which is only the beginning for the caller's demands and the irreversible damage inflicted on all involved.

Compliance is certainly a good film. Writer/Director Craig Zobel tells a tough story, but tells it well. He immediately hooks the audience with a mystery and reveals the truth early, but by then the film demands you watch all the events play, no matter how dirty you feel while doing so. Despite all this, it's difficult not to feel outraged at the stupidity of the characters, but even angrier at the fact that we're told on the front end that this really happened, and these people, or some version of them, exists within our world. Therefore I found myself quite distracted as I mentally yelled at ALL of them while watching them become worse as the events unfolded.

The hardest part to accept about Compliance isn't just that it's based on a true story, but it really shines an ugly light on our society, leaving lots of room for discussion on the characters and their actions. If you can get through it the film in the first place.

New Release: Identity Thief

I love Melissa McCarthy.  Just wanted to say that up front.  She was Sookie St. James in "Gilmore Girls", which I also loved, and now she's doing her own thing and I'm all for it.  I'm also a huge fan of Jason Bateman - "Arrested Development" is amazing.  So I went into this expecting to like it quite a bit - and honestly, I did. However, if you don't already like both of those actors, this movie isn't going to do much to convince you.  McCarthy plays Diana, an over the top con artist in Florida who has her own credit card making machine.  She scams people over the phone and gets their important info and then builds some credit cards for herself and then goes out to have fun on their dime.  One person she calls is Sandy Bigelow Patterson (a man with an androgynous name perfect for her needs) played by Bateman. He works for a jerk and is about to get a promotion leaving the firm.  Unfortunately, Diana has gotten arrested under her assumed name, and maxed out a few credit cards.  Sandy finally figures out what's going on, and tries to convince the police, and his boss who wants to fire him.  Even more unfortunately, she hasn't broken any laws in Denver, so the local cops don't care at all about the real Sandy's problems.  The only way they'll get involved if she shows up in Denver and confesses.  I don't know enough about how actual identity theft works, so I'm just going with their premise.  Sandy decides to go get her, offer not to press charges for the credit cards, as long as she talks to his boss and gets his job back. 

The rest of the movie is their misadventure to get back to Denver from Florida.  It turns out she's pissed off a few people in Florida (the rapper T.I. plays one of them) and of course has jumped bail for her mix-up with the law, so a bounty hunter is after her.  Of course things work out - and Diana only gets killed like 3 different times.  But they make the rest pretty much make sense, if hard to believe.  It's a similar idea of Due Date with the road trip and two totally crazy companions.  It's much better than Due Date, and funnier in some ways than Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but not as well written.  I liked the mix of characteristics they each bring to the story, and it made for some really funny moments.  However, if you're one of the incomprehensible people who doesn't already like these actors, then you might not like this.  Oh, and there's a scene with snakes that means I'll never be watching it again. 

New Release Double Header: Les Misérables

Jess' Review

I saw this on the day after Christmas.  I have seen Les Miserables on stage 4 times - twice on Broadway, including the first time when I was 9.  This is to explain that I was seriously predisposed to like this movie.  And I really, really did.  I liked hearing the songs I love put to music with, mostly, such amazing acting. Hugh Jackman brought some pretty great skill to recreating Jean Valjean, a man who got out of prison and managed to change his life and the life of a young girl.  Anne Hathaway is going to completely deserve her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for playing Fantine, a young woman with a child who gets turned out of her job on moral grounds and ends up a prostitute.  Fantine's daughter, Cosette (an amazing Isabelle Allen), is raised by Valjean after Fantine's death.  However, this means bringing her into his life of hiding from Javert (Russell Crowe), a policeman who was there when Valjean was initially released, and has continued to hunt him.  I really, really liked Eddie Redmayne who played Marius, a young man who is fighting for equal rights, but falls in love with Cosette. And finally, the last thing I loved was Samantha Barks as Eponine, Marius' friend who helps him find Cosette.  I really liked each of these things individually, including Russell Crowe's interpretation of Javert (and yes, his voice too).

Now, the things I would have rather they'd done differently.  This movie is an EPIC story.  The book it's based on is nearly 1000 pages.  The opening scene set me up to think that the movie makers knew this too.  A huge ship being dragged into a hanger by prisoners (Valjean).  That's the last time this movie felt epic.  Almost every other major shot is a close-up of the person singing, until the last moment that still doesn't live up to the epic concept.  That's not to say many of the shots aren't great, Fantine's singing close-up is perfect. When we get to the barricades (student's rioting for freedom in Paris), it only looks about 15 feet wide in a tiny corner of the streets.  It didn't look as big as the version that appeared on stage.  It didn't live up to what this kind of story required.  If they were trying to show that it was a smaller and more futile struggle than we knew, it worked, but it was a let down.  Also, the performance of Amanda Seyfried was not up to the strength required to sing the part of Cosette, grown up falling in love with Marius.  While that part is particularly difficult to sing, it's very high and often on a single note, she was not the person to sing it.  The other big thing that failed was the staging and performances of the lighter moments with the Thendariers (Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) - they were very difficult to hear or understand and really didn't bring any of the humor or light-heartedness that every version I've ever seen on stage.

Overall, I still really enjoyed it.  I did notice another beef when I bought the soundtrack that I should mention.  I didn't notice this during the film, but there is a really bad mixing of the sound - the voices really often do not line up with the beat of the orchestra.  They sang the songs live (as opposed to lip syncing later) and I think it did improve the performance and emotion, but the next step was to carefully match the entire orchestra to the voices instead of the other way around, and I think this was a bigger problem than I realized.




Rachel's Review

I am on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from Jess. I have never seen the stage production of Les Miserables, I haven't read the book nor (yet) seen the non-musical film staring Liam Neeson. I only know about the story in a pop culture context, and of course every girl who's ever thought she was God's gift to music has at one time attempted (and likely butchered) "I Dreamed a Dream" or "On My Own," or both if she's particularly delusional. What does all this amount to? I had zero expectations going into the theater. And overall, I liked it.

The winning factor of the film is the performances and how well the "live-singing" benefited the actors. No the singing wasn't perfectly polished, but it felt more in tune with the gritty surroundings and darkness of the story.

Unfortunately, that's the only really good choice Tom Hooper made, because his directing was atrocious. It's all a bit too much when you have virtually 2.5 hours of straight singing and 90% (I didn't really keep track) of the shots are tight close-ups on the actors' faces. In the end, I left theater with a whopper of headache that lasted for the rest of my weekend thanks to the visual attack I suffered. Can you imagine the suffering if the film had been offered in IMAX? Blindness most likely.

And then there's the story. I know it can't be easy chopping a million-page book down to a passable time in the theater (stage or film), but somethings just felt rushed and a bit silly. I like Valjean's story, his hardships and attempts at redemption. I loved poor Fantine's heartbreaking demise. However, her eager willingness to hand over her daughter to a man she did not know, and little Cosette's eagerness to go with a strange man she met in the woods, was disturbing at best. And of course Marius "falling in love" with older Cosette (on the brink of revolution no less) after seeing her for 30 seconds on the street was plain silly. It wouldn't be a big deal if their love story didn't help drive the second act of the film, but thankfully there was a large body count to balance it out, because the revolution was excellent.

As a Les Miserables first-timer, I mostly enjoyed the film, but it wasn't quite as sweeping as I had hoped, given its reputation. Alas, I walked away with a feeling that it could grow on me with time, and that rarely happens.

New Release: Jack Reacher

It's unusual for us to start with our scale, but Jack Reacher is a solid 3.5/5 stars film.  However, I think should not have been made.  Let me explain.  I've never read the books, and have no idea what the eponymous character is supposed to look like or act like, so I have no problem with Tom Cruise playing this role.  So that's not my problem with the film.  I actually really, really liked the character of Jack Reacher - he's a retired military police detective with pretty exceptional deductive and reasoning abilities.  He solved crimes for the military and then chose not to live "on the grid" and drifts about now.  We don't get much more than that for his back story, but this is only the first of what was obviously supposed to be another franchise (and there are many books from which they could have drawn).  Now he's been brought back to the real world, on behalf of a guy, Barr, who has been accused of killing 5 seemingly random people on a waterfront from a parking garage far away.  The guy wants the police to bring in Jack Reacher on his behalf.  The rest of the movie follows Reacher's attempt to figure out how and why this guy might have committed these crimes.  He's helping Rosamund Pike (whom I adore), the attorney defending Barr.  He works with the police, David Oyelowo, to examine the evidence, and the DA, Richard Jenkins, to understand what might be the bigger picture.  Of course it all ends up being much bigger and more convoluted than I could possibly explain.  Werner Herzog is the bad guy - and this is NOT a spoiler.

But back to my original statement that this movie should NOT have been made, and likely will never become a franchise.  I think the character of Jack Reacher was one that could have become a long franchise - similar to Jack Ryan, they could have gone forward or backward in time with successive actors.  However, I'm glad that it won't, if only because it might mean that they stop making movies where the main character is a man with a gun who kills a lot of innocent people.  I know, the first response is that there are a lot of movies out right now with gun violence, why is this one different.  Django Unchained is MUCH more violent than Jack Reacher, and many of the people are killed with guns.  The difference is the tone - there is nothing realistic about either the violence or the bloodshed going on in Django - it's in another time, and bad people line up to be shot, and pretty much everyone gets what they deserve.  In Jack Reacher we watch them fight to protect the rights of someone accused of shooting a group of innocent people.  After a very, very cursory look at those people, they are forgotten and their deaths neither revenged, nor justified.  They just become part of the reason we hate the bad guy at the end, but only in the abstract.  As a society, if celebrating this kind of movie, and the violence it contains, is even a small part of what has driven people to commit crimes like this in real life, I think we have an obligation to not make these movies.  There is so much more creativity available to us, that to choose limit our storytelling on film to other choices does not limit us as a people who value both freedom and free speech.  ** Stepping off the soapbox.  Thanks for reading.

New Release Double Header: Skyfall

Rachel's Review

It's no secret that James Bond has never really held much interest for me. In fact Skyfall is only the second 007 film I've seen in the theater. (My first? "Christmas Jones" ring a bell? Ugggh.) With only a small sample of others under my belt, I found the half-century old franchise to be silly, repetitive, cheesy and sexist. Of course the Craig era has helped, at least in Casino Royale, but not enough for me to keep up with the super spy. However, if you hear enough praise of a film for a long enough period of time, it seems worth a matinee trip on a holiday weekend to see what all the fuss is about. And for once, the rumors were (mostly) true.

The thing that sets Skyfall apart from the few others I've seen is that the plot is actually good. It's not just a terrorist threatening mayhem for the sake making money or pissing people off: Silva (Javier Bardem) is a bad guy with a vendetta against M (Judi Dench) and that suddenly makes things more personal than any idiot with his finger on a trigger of a nuclear device. In the process, he blows up MI6 headquarters as a warning to M, whilst threatening to expose the true identities of undercover agents in terrorist organizations. It's not just about exacting revenge on M for past indiscretions, but making her suffer in every way possible. And it's quite cruel.

And this time around Bond didn't just get back to his roots to make the film better (no exploding pens! no invisible cars!), he also dug up his own past a bit. I always feel a little backstory goes a long way, and Skyfall proved that because for the first time I saw Bond as a real person, instead of an MI6 puppet that can be changed out every decade when his expiration date is up. Though the rough patch of the film is too-long-for-its-own-good third act, I still respect it for what it gave to our hero, as the climax plays out at his childhood estate. On top of his past coming back to an emotional surface, 007 also had to face the sad fact that he is not a machine, as he struggles physically after a very close call with death. Even the ladies of his life (Naomi Harris and Berenice Marlohe) had more personality than I remember in others of Bond Girls past.

So a healthy dose of character development and deeper plot mixed with stunning actions sequences (did I forget to mention those?) made a great recipe for what might actually be a Bond film I will be able to pick out of a line up of the other films from the franchise.



Jess' Review - This is the twelfth Bond film I've seen. And I must say it felt the least like a Bond film of all of them. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No, I still enjoyed both the character and the world as much as ever. It definitely lacked some of the whimsy and humor of many Bond films (there was only one major smoldering smile), but it did a great job being full of action, but with a fairly strong story too. The action sequences are broken up with dialogue - who knew that narrating a fight scene over ear pieces would make it that much more exciting!

Bond (Daniel Craig) is trying to find a baddie who stole the list of MI6 agents before their identities are compromised. He goes off the grid for a while, until MI6 is attacked and he returns to help M (Dame Judi Dench) save the day. Unlike a lot of previous Bond films, we meet the bad guy, Silva (Javier Bardem) fairly early in the movie and actually get to spend a while getting to know him. Most Bond films spend time keeping the "larger than life" criminal hidden behind levels of thugs and secret dealings, but this was refreshing in introducing us to the faults of the good guys and the niceties of the bad guys. The Craig era of Bond has been much more focused on Bond as a man, and we do get a lot of his back story in Skyfall.

My biggest issue with the film was the aging Daniel Craig. I don't necessarily mean that he's too old to play the part, but they must have joked about his age, and M's age at least half a dozen times (all without much humor). Since Bond must, out of necessity, be ageless, this seemed like a stupid tack to take. Also, either Craig is actually looking old, or they put on make-up to accent his jowls and general cragginess. It felt like it was getting ready for only one or two more movies and wrapping up the story. Since he's the 6th person to play Bond, I don't understand the point of going in this direction. And for a movie over two and half hours, it's surprising how little really happens. But I still liked the film a lot, more than Quantum of Solace and as much as Casino Royale.

New Release: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2

SPOILERS (Even for those who've read the book.)

For those of you not in the know, I really dug this series, in an ironic sort of way. The hype around it brings a smile to my face for all the wrong reasons. I've read the books numerous times and I've watched the films numerous times (but always just once in the theater). And I know it's sexist, teen trash. Now, if my daughter(s) were in the target demographic, I'd feel differently, but I'm old enough to know what's right and wrong, and though I know everything this saga preaches is totally wrong, I still find it loads of superficial fun. And I'm not even there to drool over guys at least a decade my junior because by now everyone should know that I'm Team Charlie for life.

All that being said, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 wasn't all that bad. Not just for a Twilight movie, but for a movie in general. And this is coming from someone who hated  the last book with a passion. I honestly think it should have just ended after they defeated Victoria in Eclipse, but apparently creepy half breed, vampire-human children that tease grown werewolves are where the money's at in the teen literary market these days. I really didn't care for Part I, which painfully detailed Edward and Bella's wedding/honeymoon/c-section-by-vampire-teeth birth. It just dragged on and on, and the only hope left was that I had the last film to look forward to, when sixty people stand in a snowy field and stare at each other before anti-climatically going their separate ways. Thankfully, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg finally took some pity on us.

Bella (Kristen Stewart) wakes up a vampire, something she's actually good at being, which showed, because this is the least annoying Bella has been throughout the series. She finally doesn't take crap from anyone, especially her new husband Edward (Robert Pattinson). Be it her new bloodsucking outlook on life or her new role as a mother, it took getting further away from Bella's first person point of view to quit despising her so much. And most of the awkwardness from the principal players that permeated the first films is mostly gone. It's as if they finally got comfortable in their characters in time for the entire series to end. Hence, there are far fewer silent pauses of everyone just staring at each other. Also hence, Breaking Dawn: Part 2 is much better paced than any of its predecessors.

And then there is the matter of the twenty minute (at least) action sequence that didn't exist within the book. Actually, none of the action sequences in any of the films were written out in the book, because Stephenie Meyer simply can't write. She always used some lame excuse to get out of writing anything adrenaline-fueled, by having our first person narrator in another place or just passed out. I wish I was making this up. But the action that takes place within the previous films was alluded to or referenced in one way another. However the actual fight we see on screen between the Cullens and the Volturi was never apart of the original source material in any form, because Meyer has admitted to being a big baby that can't hack killing off her characters. I'm sort of paraphrasing here.

So after the Volturi (vampire overlords) believe the Cullens have created a vampire child (a big effing no-no in the vampire world) they decide to pay them a visit and execute them. Alice's (Ashley Greene) psychic powers give the Cullens an advantage as they can know what the Volturi are planning and when they'll be coming. So the Cullens do the only logical thing: bring an ass-ton of vampires to Forks to witness that the alleged vampire child is Bella and Edwdard's half human daughter and not a threat to anyone. Yes, it's an incredibly thin plot when you think that with all their combined super powers, the Cullens could easily convince the Volturi of the truth, but this is all from the head of the woman who cursed humankind with the name Renesmee, so we just have to watch it play out at this point.

Now, besides the paper-thin plot, this is my main issue with the film. I like that we are introduced to a number of vampires from around the world, but few of them are given enough character to really matter. It takes awhile to gather them all up and for each to show off their magical powers, which drags down the flow of the film a bit, but I'm just waiting for the epic battle the trailer promised, so I didn't mind too much, because I know the book took even longer going through all this, so I should just be thankful the movie is only two hours long.

So the showdown with the Volturi finally arrives, but first we have to sit through a lot of talking, only made tolerable by the indescribable performance of Michael Sheen as leader Aro. Seriously, he's worth the price of a ticket and you have to see it to believe the insanity. But then something peculiar happens. During all this talking, Aro and Cullen leader Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) get into a scuffle that ends with Carlisle's beheading. Hmmm...that wasn't in the book. Then the battle that the trailer teased us with begins. And it's pretty awesome, counting the losses on both sides. And any time Dakota Fanning dies, I'm pretty sure an angel gets its wings.

However, in the back of my mind, as Jasper is ripped to shreds, then Seth is crushed to death and Leah falls into a giant crevice to the center of the Earth, I know it's not all real. I know that Stephenie Meyer, admittedly being a giant, thumb-sucking baby, would never allow the final film adaptation of her beloved art to fall to such heresy just for general popcorn entertainment. I almost finished typing that with a straight face. And in the end I was right, because that energetic action sequence with real sacrifices being made was just a vision that Alice showed to Aro, to change his mind of starting a war. Then there's more talking, the Volturi run off and everyone lives happily ever after, to repeat high school for all eternity.

Normally the fake-out ending is shat upon, as we all give a collective groan when it was "just a dream." But here it worked. Probably everyone in the theater had read (and hopefully loathed) the final book and when Carlisle died on screen, the game suddenly changed. This injection of genuine excitement appeased both the audience who had to have more than a long conversation in a snowy field and the Royal Overlord who refused to write a real climax. In other words, it was...satisfying.

And with that, it's finally over, kids. You can rest easy knowing you survived the five consecutive years of the Twilight saga milking your precious box office. That is until the next love sick, emo infused, supernatural young adult series hits theaters, which is probably a lot sooner than you think.

DVD Review: People Like Us

Sometimes it's hard to describe what makes you pick up a movie and give it a try.  It could be the star, or the director, even the story.  In the age of digital movie watching, I think our reasons become even more ambiguous. I was looking for something to watch the other day and stumbled upon People Like Us.  I know I get to watch a lot romantic comedies so this was likely in my wheel house, though it's definitely not a comedy.  Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks were what drew me in - and a trailer run before something else I saw months ago.  The ad made it look like they they had chemistry, but then made you think a mystery was afoot.  So I got sucked in.  Thankfully the movie was much better than that.

Sam (Chris Pine) works in the barter business (he buys a stack of lumber and trades it for 600 cans of soup) for Jon Favreau.  He makes one mistake that gets him in trouble on the same day he gets a call that his father died.  His girlfriend, Hannah (Olivia Wilde - who is getting better now that I know she can act after seeing Butter), urges him to attend the funeral, and while they miss the first flight, leaving his mother (Michelle Pfeiffer) to sit alone, they do finally make it home.  Sam hated his dad and rarely went home before, so he's REALLY pissed when his dad leaves what little money they had to a stranger, Josh (Michael Hall D'Addario, and less than annoying 10-year-old).  Sam goes to figure out who this guy is and figures out that Josh's mom, Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) is his half sister.  He befriends Frankie and they kind of hit it off - though surprisingly in a platonic kind of way (thankfully) with lots of fun, teasing banter.
Yes, you can see the shit is going to hit the fan because Sam doesn't tell Frankie that they're siblings right away.  And you can see that Sam is going to find a way back to being part of a family again, and probably forgive his father.  But the journey of this film is still worth the price of admission (or download).  It's funny when it needs to be, believable and genuine the rest of the time.  Definitely predictable, but I still enjoyed it.

VOD Review: Arbitrage

Films about troubled hedge fund magnates don't normally get my attention. I'm still not entirely sure what a hedge fund even is. But Arbitrage had just enough positive feedback to get me interested. And with its solid cast paired with my lack of knowledge of the actual plot, my icky feelings on money talk were quickly brushed aside.

Richard Gere plays said hedge fund magnate, Robert Miller, who's on the verge of selling his multi-million dollar corporation. Unfortunately, a bad international investment left him half a million short on the books, money which he borrows to cover up the error so the sale will pass during an audit. Not only does he have money issues, but while driving late one night, he falls asleep at the wheel, causing an accident that kills his mistress (Laetitia Costa) in the passenger seat. An accident from which he runs so as not to get caught with his pants down.

Had the film been about merely one indiscretion or the other, it wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining. But Miller is under attack from all sides. His daughter (Brit Marling) is the CFO of his company and begins to question him about the company's cooked books, while a determined detective (Tim Roth) is convinced Miller was behind the wheel when his mistress died. And he can't talk to his loving and devoted wife (Susan Sarandon) about his problems, as she seems to scheming on her own. So we watch as one man on top of the world very quickly spirals downward, teetering on the edge of losing absolutely everything, with a minimum of 20 years behind bars.

And yet we don't hate him. Gere plays the film's anti-hero so that no matter the outcome, the results wouldn't be terribly upsetting. He's sympathetic enough that should he get away with it all, it almost feels as though he's suffered enough under the pressure of hiding the truth and cleaning up his mess. Yet he's just arrogant enough that getting caught would feel like absolute justice. A very gray area, indeed.

But Arbitrage does have its slow, confusing moments, at least when the financial talk gets heavy. And though the mixing of Miller's issues makes for good entertainment, the thriller aspect of the film feels a bit too common in the end. Thankfully the cast gives could enough performances to mask it, and it's more about watching Miller chase his own tail than finding out whether or not he'll ever actually catch it.

DVD Roundup: Biological Clock Edition

I will totally cop to being in the age bracket for these films, and a sucker for bad chick flicks. So try to be original when mocking my taste in films this time. What to Expect When You're Expecting and I Don't Know How She Does It are both about moms, the first expecting and the latter experienced. Expecting has 5 intersecting stories of women that are pregnant, by choice, design, or accident - Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) is a baby-less mommy expert married to Gary (Ben Falcone). Gary's former racecar driving father, Ramsey (Dennis Quaid) has knocked up his incredibly young second wife Skylar (Brooklyn Decker). Skylar's cousin Rosie (Anna Kendrick) drives a food truck, and has a chance meeting with Marco (Chace Crawford) and ends up preggars. One of Wendy's work partners, Holly (Jennifer Lopez) is a photographer who is about to adopt a baby. The outside story that starts us off though reconnects by the end is Jules (Cameron Diaz) a TV fitness guru who is sleeping with her "Dancing with the Stars" rip-off partner Evan (Matthew Morrison), but it's true love (even though she's a bitch). We watch them all try to deal with being pregnant - some are overjoyed, shocked, terrified, spoiled, etc. It's funny and, based on my own friends, fairly realistic.

One of the funniest elements to the story is the "men's group", a group of dads, some the spouses of other supporting characters, that gathers to confess to being bad parents without getting in trouble with their wives. Chris Rock heads this group, strolling 3 kids plus one in tow. They explain the rules to some of the expectant fathers - no squealing on each other (they drop kids, screw up changing diapers, forget them, etc.). Again, it's funny and honest seeming, though probably gives dads a pretty bad rap - most of the guys I know are pretty great dads. It's a surprisingly funny movie, with good small performances. Usually movies with this broad a cast (it's got almost everyone from Bridesmaids except Wiig and Rudolph) struggle trying to give everyone a balanced storyline. This really focuses on Wendy and Jules at opposite ends of the group and gives just enough time to the others that you care about their stories, but we have something driving it along that will end in 9 months - a surprising success based on a How-To type book.

I Don't Know How She Does It was a Sarah Jessica Parker flop from last fall. I blame this mostly on the marketing - they showed the most stupid plot devices, like SJP stepping out of the story to talk to the camera (which she only does once or twice) and the times she narrated her "lists". Basically, she's a Wall Street fund manager who is good at her job, loves her family, and can pretty much do it all. Obviously, she can't, but thankfully we don't watch her screw up too big to forgive. She and Greg Kinnear have good chemistry and you actually believe that she wouldn't leave him for Pierce Brosnan. We see her attempt to succeed at work, support her husband, and deal with her kids.

The device of everyone in the story being interviewed (faux mockumentary style) doesn't work, but it's fun watching Christina Hendricks (SJP's best friend, single mother who always screws up snack) and Busy Phillips (annoying perfect mom) whine about how SJP can do anything. Brosnon is a client trying to woo SJP, and Seth Meyers in the annoying ass at her office gunning for her job. This movie succeeds because it's not nearly as bad as it should be - so rising above expectations does give it a boost it likely doesn't deserve. But I laughed and I found all of the supporting characters kind of charming. Thankfully, other than the interview and talk to the camera techniques, the movie doesn't bother.

New Release: Pitch Perfect

Perhaps it's my undying love for Anna Kendrick. Perhaps it's the fact that I still (ashamedly) watch Glee. Whatever the reason, Pitch Perfect looked like a couple of hours of pure fun. Thank goodness it was.

When Beca (Anna Kendrick), an aspiring DJ, starts college, she reluctantly joins the all-girl a capella group on campus to appease her demanding father. Unfortunately, the group is at the bottom of the competition barrel after leader Aubrey (Anna Camp) vomited all over the audience at nationals the previous year. Aubrey is insistant that the only way to get back to nationals is to continue with their "traditional" (i.e. stale) routine, but a defiant Beca has bigger ideas. Not only do the girls have to get back in the game, but they must also compete with the insanely popular all-male group on campus, whose newcomer Jesse (Skylar Astin) is a love interest for Beca.

The music alone wasn't the draw for the film, because I'm not one to watch any of the endless singing competitions polluting television today. But when the cast actually seems to be having fun with what they're doing, it really shows, and for that alone Pitch Perfect is worth a watch.

Yes, the film is painfully predictable (a point our heroine brings up about all movies). Of course we all know from the beginning that Beca will come around to wanting to stay in college and not alienate herself from everyone, especially Jesse, while Aubrey will eventually chill out and accept some of Beca's changes to the group so they can wow at nationals. That being said, and sort of spoiled, it doesn't really matter. Though you can see every plot turn coming a mile away, it's the energy the cast brings that makes the journey worth it.

I'm pretty sure Kendrick can do no wrong (Twilight excluded). Though Beca was a pretty stock character, Kendrick mad me forget the various incarnations that came before and made the part her own. And becoming the new young actress that holds nothing back, Rebel Wilson had me snorting with laughter as the self-titled Fat Amy. Playing it straight or for the laughs, I'm anxious to see more of her in the near future. Supporting these two favorite ladies is an ensemble of young, quirky women that each shine in their own way, thanks to both over-the-top and subtle humor working well together, as well as some random smaller performances from the likes of Elizabeth Banks, John Michael Higgins and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Even with the cliches aside, Pitch Perfect is far from perfect, especially when it comes to some juvenile gross-out humor (Aubrey seems to be wound so tightly, vomiting enough to make Regan MacNeil blush is her only real release), but it wasn't enough to turn me away to the rest of the fun on screen. Oh, and the singing isn't bad either.

DVD Review: W. E.

When I first heard about this movie, I was really intrigued as I have a potentially obsessive attraction to the British Royal family.  Then I found out Madonna wrote and directed it and I was surprisingly put off.  Then it got nominated for an Oscar for costume design so I was intrigued again.  So now that it's on Netflix streaming, I got to check it out pretty easily.  The movie takes several real events - the love affair between Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) and King Edward VIII, known as David (James D'Arcy) that led to his abdication and the auction at Sotheby's of their estate. Overlaid on that storyline is a parallel story of a modern woman (Abbie Cornish) in NYC who was named Wally after Simpson and is obsessed with her story.  She's married to an unfaithful husband (Richard Coyle - yes, Jeff from Coupling) and befriends one of the security guards at the Sotheby's auction.

The whole historical story is fairly well documented, but this movie tries to tell the story from Simpson's point of view, so we see her first marriage and living with an abusive husband in Shanghai.  Then we see her coming to England and marrying her second husband.  With him, she's invited to parties with the Prince of Wales, but is trying to set up one of her friends. Of course, eventually she is the one pursued by David.  They have an up and down affair as she realizes how public their relationship will be because of his family.  After he becomes King, it only gets worse, with members of Parliament threatening to quit.  Most of this part of the story is told just as well in The King's Speech, but Wallis often comes across as the temptress who stole a King.  However, W.E. tries to give a more balanced view of Simpson who had to give up privacy as well as becoming almost a historical joke.

Our modern Wally wanders around the auction thinking about how the items would have been used.  There are moments when they can even interact in an almost dream-like sequence.  There are also moments when Wally is channeling Wallis, dressing like her most of the film.  However, our Wally is deeply unhappy in her marriage and looks to Wallis for strength to go after what she wants.  The parallel stories work much of the film, but not every time.  Some just start being silly when Wally gives back the gloves she bought at the auction to Wallis, who wears them out of the scene.   The historical scenes do end quite well as we see what happened as David and Wallis (the Duke and Duchess of Windsor after the abdication) were never allowed back to England and lived out their lives in Paris.  I liked that story line very much, and Abbie Cornish as Wally was really good, but without much to work with since her story was created to overlay a rich historical drama.  And since it was Madonna, I feel I must comment on what was really rapid-fire direction, to an almost dizzying degree she'd whip between shots.  It didn't feel necessary and often left you wondering what happened so quickly.  Overall, because I enjoy period pieces in general, I did enjoy this.  The technical bits were overcome by great costumes and an interesting historical story.

DVD Round-Up: War Horse and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

[Editor's Note: These were the only nominees for the Academy's 2012 Best Picture Award that I skipped at the theater, mainly because their reception was lukewarm to ice cold, and I didn't foresee them claiming any major awards.]

War Horse

Emotional manipulation bothers me, and as soon as I saw the teaser trailer for War Horse, with very little dialogue and an over-the-top score, I assumed this tale about a boy and his horse in World War I was exactly that. And though I wasn't entirely wrong in my original assessment, the film did have a lot more to offer.

War Horse focuses on Joey, a horse purchased by young Albert's (Jeremy Irvine) father to perform plow work for which Joey isn't particularly trained or built. However, when the family can't pay their rent, Albert's father sells Joey to the British army as World War I begins, breaking Albert's heart. Joey is used by both the British and German during the course of the war, and even finds respite briefly on a French farm, impressing everyone he meets with is beauty, strength and endurance.

The first act delivers exactly what I expected. With the sappy set up of Albert and Joey's relationship, the overpowering score, and a desperate attempt to make the story feel epic, I thought for a moment that perhaps War Horse would be more at home in the mid-90s on the Disney channel. Though the film is based on a children's novel, I was still expecting higher quality in its execution.

Thankfully, once Joey is sold to the army, the film starts to take a grittier turn. Afterall, it is a film set against the backdrop of a war. What really begins to work at this point is that when Joey leaves Albert's farm, the film mostly leaves Albert behind too, only to revisit him briefly once in the middle of the film, until his more mature return at the end.

This is very much a film about the horse and his miraculous journey through a very dark time in history. Joey's adventures aren't without their own dab of schmaltz, unfortunately, as he befriends another horse in the army named Topthorn. When the weaker Topthorn is elected to pull heavy German artillery, a demanding task that typically kills horses quickly, Joey actually runs in to take the place of his friend. It is as cheesy to watch as the description sounds.

But despite the moments of bothersome emotional manipulation, War Horse is a very beautiful film with a strong leading character that is fascinating to watch. And though an overdose of sentimentality may not be for everyone, especially me, the message of hope during such difficult times is one that anyone, including me, can and should appreciate. And that's really what War Horse is all about.




Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close felt like a low blow in the Best Picture race. In a year when the Academy decided to redact it's "hard ten nominees" rule and implement a change that allowed five to ten nominees for the most "deserving," Extremely Loud flew in under the radar to nab the ninth (and final) slot. Not only was it under the radar, but a closer look at the general consensus of the professional critics and the limited release audiences was pitiful. It was the only film of the prestigious nine to have a certified "rotten" average on Rotten Tomatoes, which hasn't changed. When critic and fan favorites like Fincher's Dragon Tattoo remake and Refn's Drive were shut out of the Best Picture race, Extremely Loud soon became the film to hate, whether you'd seen it or not, myself included. But did it really deserve all the vitriol?  Now that I have seen it, I can say without hesitation "Absolutely."

The story is of a young Oskar (Thomas Horn), who has some undefined disability (perhaps somewhere in the Autism spectrum, though it's never really stated), whose beloved father (Tom Hanks) sends him on expeditions around New York City to help Oscar control some of his issues. However, after his father's tragic death during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Oskar, unable to connect in the same with his mother (Sandra Bullock) is lost. Then he finds a key in a vase and is convinced that his father had one final expedition in mind, making it his mission to find the lock the key fits.

I wondered for the longest time what the title of the film referred to. The planes and collapsing towers? The tragedy and mayhem? The spirit and memory of Oskar's father? Nope. It's Oskar himself. Thomas Horn spends 85% of the film yelling his dialogue at everyone, as if he's the only person in the world who's ever lost somebody. Even before his father's death, warming up to Oskar was impossible as his crude exchanges with the apartment doorman (John Goodman) were completely unnecessary. Though the film puts forth some vague disability, Oskar is nothing more than a spoiled, obnoxious brat who lacks any discipline. And since Extremely Loud is very much focused on Oskar and his journey, it fails by putting such a loathsome character at its gooey center.

As is if Oskar isn't awful enough, the film is highly exploitative of the 9/11 tragedy. Oskar's father could have died in any way, and the same story could have been told. Even worse is that Oskar's father didn't work at the World Trade Center; he was a jeweler who owned a shop and was unfortunate enough to be there on that fateful day. Extremely Loud pulls no punches in manipulating viewers' emotions.

It's all quite disappointing too, because with less plot contrivances and a better written central character, Extremely Loud might have been worthy of its wrongful nomination. Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, and Jeffrey Wright make the most of their few minutes on screen. And Sandra Bullock saves the movie from being entirely unwatchable with a lovely, quiet scene with Oskar toward the end, once the entire story comes full circle, but a scene that almost feels too little, too late.

So now that I've experienced the film for myself and am no longer relying on the opinions of others, I can say with strong conviction that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close was undoubtedly the weakest candidate among an already underwhelming group of Best Picture nominees this year.

New Release: Premium Rush

Though January and August seem to be the ultimate dumping grounds for the bottom of the film barrel, sometimes Hollywood bestows a nice surprise upon the desperate ticket-holding audience. Such is the case for Premium Rush, an originally-slated for January-but-pushed-back-to-August release.

Premium Rush spins the tale of the hard life of the Manhattan bike messenger, hated equally by both drivers and pedestrians. Nearing the end of his work day, fearless bike messenger Wilee (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) picks up a delivery that quickly has dirty cop Bobby Monday (Michael Shannon) hot on his trail, and getting the package across town to its destination on time becomes nearly impossible.

"Bike messenger pedals away from dirty cop" doesn't exactly beg to be seen, but with the talents of the highly beloved Jo-Go and Michael Shannon, it seemed Premium Rush was worth at least a matinee ticket. What followed was 90 minutes of a perfectly paced and expertly told story. It's a thin story, to be sure, but worth following for the time it takes to down a large soda and bucket of popcorn. There is little to reflect on afterwards, except to think, "Damn that was fun!"

And the film does try to be more than just a lot of cool bike tricks. There is a backstory to Wilee and the dangerous envelope he's carrying, but not so much that exposition slows down the action that moves everything forward. Though the performances are either a bit stiff or insanely over the top, they fit within the fast paced world of the busy bike messenger.

Premium Rush isn't a "must see" flick, but it is an exciting last jolt of summer fun before the artsy darlings hit theaters next month. [Insert bicycle pun about wearing a helmet.]

New Release: The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Based on yesterday's "Lunchtime Poll", my answer helps explain why I saw this movie in theaters.  Jennifer Garner, I will pretty much go to the theater to see anything she's in.  I've really liked her since her TV show 'Alias' and will watch her do almost anything.  Then you add a sort of mystical element of a child growing from the garden, and give her Joel Edgerton (who was awesome in Warrior last year) and I was a shoe-in to see this.

Here's the background - Jim and Cindy Green would like more than anything to have a family.  Cindy didn't have a traditional one growing up, and Jim really hates his own dad.  However, they've been told it's not possible.  A drunk night of mourning ensues where they imagine the kind of kid they would have had and make a list of qualities he or she might have possessed.  Then, like burning old photos of a boyfriend to get over him, they bury this list in the garden.  Magic takes a hand, and a little boy named Timothy (the only boys name on Jim and Cindy's baby-name list) appears in their house in the middle of the night.  He's about 10 years old, normal, articulate, and the spitting image of Jim and Cindy, but he has real leaves growing out of his legs.  After he calls Jim and Cindy "mom and dad", they start to see how their "wish" might have come to life.  They explain it away as Timothy having "arrived" to stay with them.  They keep his leaves covered with socks.  Pretty soon we start to see some of Jim and Cindy's wishes for their child coming true (a sense of humor, the ability to 'rock'), and they get really excited that he is and always will be the child they were meant to have.  If you've ever see Big or 13 Going on 30 or The Santa Clause, you can guess what's going to happen next so I won't spoil the rest.

One of the techniques that is used to tell this story is flashback.  The movie starts with Jim and Cindy ominously telling their story to two people (one is Shohreh Aghdashloo whose voice I adore from The House of Sand and Fog) who are asking questions and making them defend their actions.  Their ability to stumble over one another and the parts of the stories they like telling is really cute, Garner and Edgerton have good chemistry.  We don't know the authority Aghdashloo and her partner have, but we know it's important to hear all of Timothy's story.  The way the community embraces Timothy has that same feeling of Lars and the Real Girl when they all embrace "Bianca" because they love Ryan Gosling.  They just go with it, without question.  It seems silly, but this is probably closer to real life than we think - how often do you ask people if their kids were born to them, grew in the garden or were delivered by aliens.  Mostly we just accept what's right in front of us.

My only problem with this movie, and it's a big one, is that it doesn't have enough content.  It's long enough, magical enough, with really good acting, but there's not enough oomph behind Timothy's magic.  Garner and Edgerton are good, well-developed characters - they're free spirits who work in a town whose economy is declining.  But that's not enough.  In Big, they at least have to try to find the Zoltar machine to reverse the aging, but here because we don't know how long or if Timothy is staying.  So there's no rush or fear or hope pushing the movie along.  There's nowhere that the characters are trying to reach.  Yes, they're trying to help Timothy fit in - he meets a girl, plays soccer, etc. But because of this, it's hard to figure out if there's a single message that the movie is trying to tell you.  It feels like the overall message is that parenting is hard and it's not about having the perfect family, but creating a happy one.   That doesn't mean you're not going to cry or get a big goofy grin during the final scene, but it's not as big or as happy as it might have been.