Wednesdays Movie Mashup No. 43

Keith's moving up the leaderboard!  Well done - and pretty quick too.  As Rachel pointed out - it's quite a mouthful.

Last week's clue: A woman struggles with coming to terms with her crazy mother with the help of friends who pass around the perfect pair of jeans.

Answer: The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants

Leaderboard: 

Ryan - 12Nick - 9  
James, Dan, Keith- 3 
SDG, Liz - 2
Patrick, Dylan, David, Andrew, Will, Red, Alexa, Jay - 1

New Clue: A man and his dog try to survive the apocalypse while his 3 brothers fight almost to the death over the love of a woman.   
The goal is to figure out the two movies that overlap in some words creating a new movie described by the clue. Leave your answer in the comments. Good luck!

Top 5: What Keeps Me Coming Back

What is it about certain movies that you feel the need to watch them repeatedly?  Either because they really stuck with you and you can't explain why and other people don't get it, or there's something about the film that has a special resonance with you and you just have to keep getting some.  Here are my Top 5 films that I can't honestly explain well enough to convince anyone else to like them as much as I do.  Now, many of them aren't bad films (some might be) but they're definitely not widely revered, mostly just by me.

5. Stuck on You - This is easily the worst movie on this list, but it didn't stop me from purchasing it because it hadn't been on TV recently enough so I could watch it again.  Greg Kinnear and Matt Damon are conjoined twins.  They're adults and live and work on the East Coast, running a diner, and acting in local theater - or at least Kinnear is an actor.  Damon gets dressed in black and stashed behind scenery when possible.  They go to LA to try to make Kinnear's big break, which he gets on a TV show with Cher.  Damon's pen pal also lives in LA and she finally meets them.  I think the thing I like about this film is their complete acceptance that it's possible to be literally attached to someone and yet have a separate life.  They sustain the concept the entire time - it's completely improbable.  I love it.

4. Date Night - This movie mostly comes down to the comedic gags - jumping in the boat on Central Park and having it go 2mph, wearing their clothes backwards to look cooler, the two cars getting stuck together, Mark Walhberg not wearing a shirt, Tina Fey counting to 3.  There is just enough context to all of these events that bring the film together, but it's still not an amazing movie, but I watch it over and over again.

3. Yes Man - Jim Carrey probably does his best transformation in this movie than in almost any - since it's super contrived, I'm not surprised.  Carrey makes a pledge at a self-help seminar to say Yes to everything that's offered.  Sometimes this is taken as needing to tell the truth all the time (even when people didn't ask you anything - The Invention of Lying), but thankfully, Carrey mostly just chooses to use it to say yes to lots of opportunities and they end up changing his life (and the people he gives small loans to).  It really shouldn't work as a movie, but I still love it.  Bradley Cooper and Zooey Deschanel make the funny things he does sweeter.

2. Larry Crowne - I sense the reason I like this one is because I wanted to see myself as Julia Roberts because I too had just started teaching at a community college just after seeing this movie.  Tom Hanks is Larry Crowne, a veteran who is fired from his job as a working at a big box store and has to go back to school to get a degree.  He joins a scooter gang, takes Roberts' class on communication, and is crazy cute figuring out how to be a totally different version of himself than he expected.  When Roberts finally can't stand her husband and gets out of the car and watches him get arrested for drunk driving while Hanks gives her a ride home on his scooter, I giggle with her.

1. Knight and Day - This one I probably have the most trouble either justifying or defending.  I neither love Tom Cruise nor Cameron Diaz, nor do I hate them.  But I must say I love the odd screw-ball comedy they pull on in this one.  It's their banter through the silly, over-the-top action sequences that makes me smile like an idiot at the screen.  Diaz is accidentally on a plane that was meant to be an attempt to kill CIA rogue agent Cruise.  He kills everyone on the plane, lands it safely, and makes out with Diaz (see, over the top).  After that, he knows that Diaz will be in danger so he goes back to find her and keep her out of trouble. They end up kidnapped, on the run, etc.  It's ridiculous, but I really, really want to go watch it again right now.

A sad little fact is that combined I've watched these movies a total of more than 50 times.  What do you watch that you can't explain or defend, but can't stop watching?

New Release: Quartet

There is always a danger with the title of your film - another movie might use some part of it and you'll get them confused if they come out at the same time (A Late Quartet and Quartet).  It's almost as bad as two movies with the same story coming out at the same time (Mirror, Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman).   It's nearly inevitable that one will fail in comparison.  I feel I can safely say it is NOT going to be Quartet that fails, and you should get your butt to the theater immediately and see this.

Quartet is directed by Dustin Hoffman, and there are moments of his whimsical sense of humor throughout, though subtle.  The movie follows former opera singers and musicians at their retirement home, specifically Wilf (Billy Connelly), Cissy (Pauline Collins), and Reggie (Tom Courtney).  They once performed together in Rigoletto. Now they relive their dreams and try to stay coherent as they decline in health, but often get to practice and live their diva-natures to the fullest.  They're getting ready for a benefit to save their home directed by super diva Cedric (pronounced "see-dric", Michael Gambon in a house dress).  A new resident arrives and throws everything off, an uber famous soprano Jean (Maggie Smith), but eventually she agrees to help - she was the fourth in the Rigoletto quartet with our three heroes and now their reunited.

This movie has a simple premise - once a diva, always a diva.  And put all of them into a house together living out their golden years and a lot humor and heart will result.  It's true - I loved this movie.  There is a lot of great music, lots of snide British comments, a love story, past wrongs righted, and so much heart yours will nearly burst.  I won't give you more examples, and just urge you, and everyone you know to see this as soon as possible.

The Lunchtime Poll #25

Relative newcomer Michael Fassbender has the majority loving him. Bit surprised, but okay. Thanks for voting!

This week Heather and Veronica want to know:

How obsessed are you with movie trailers?

It seems the release of movie trailers is getting a bit out of hand, at least with bigger films. No longer is there just a "teaser" and "feature" trailer, but red bands, green bands, international, Superbowl spots, featurettes...there are even teaser trailers for the teaser trailers! So who watches them all and who all avoids them?

Triple Feature #21

David and Jay had no problem getting the Title Swap and Understudy, respectively, but no love for A Streetcar Named Desire poster, which I totally own, laminated and framed:

Poster Scramble: I've scrambled the pieces of a movie poster, some pieces are even flipped around or upside down.

Title Swap: I've replaced the main words of a film title with synonyms.

Understudy: I've replaced the actors' heads in a screenshot with our avatars.

New Releases: 3/22/13

Olympus Has Fallen - Morgan Freeman apparently do not play the President in this movie.  Aaron Eckhart does.  So immediately, this has fallen in my opinion.  However, it does look like fun - harmless but fun.  Someone traps the President in the White House and Gerard Butler has to save him.  See, harmless.  Could be good, but need to see reviews.

The Croods - I haven't been impressed by the trailers for this - the animation is just strange enough that I'm having trouble getting on board.  But the colors, and the fact that the lead is a girl makes me kinda want to check it out.  On the fence.

Admission - I will be seeing this at my earliest possible convenience.  Let's ignore the fact that she works at my alma mater, and just skip right to Tina Fey playing a really smart woman, whom I can assume falls in love with quirky Paul Rudd.  Oh, and Lily Tomlin is her mom.  Can't wait to see this! 

DVD Review: The Imposter

It's one of those stories that almost too insane to be true, and yet it is. The Imposter is a documentary about a young Frenchman (Fredric Bourdin), who in 1997, at the age of 23, posed as the missing teenage son of a family in Texas...and they believed it.

Using modern day interviews with the family, Bourdin and government officials involved, plus reenactments of the events (very little archive footage was available), The Imposter spins a masterful web of mystery of how someone could achieve such deception, why they would do it, and the devastating aftermath once everything unravels. Though the audience knows the eventual outcome of the events, it's the journey of how it all came together and fell apart that keeps one watching.

Even for documentary non-lovers, like myself, The Imposter works not only for the story, but it manages to have a balanced perspective of the sad situation, never becomes judgmental or preachy, and even leaves a little intrigue on which to think, as the whereabouts of the still-missing son are called into question. If only all based-on-true-events stories were told this well, fiction or not.

Wednesdays Movie Mashup No. 42

We have another new addition to the leaderboard.  Well done Jay!  I hope other people keep trying to get the answer  

Last week's clue: A few older guys decide they want to live like college students again and teach children to play music. 
Answer: Old School of Rock

 Leaderboard: 

Ryan - 12Nick - 9  James, Dan- 3  SDG, Keith, Liz - 2Patrick, Dylan, David, Andrew, Will, Red, Alexa, Jay - 1



New Clue: A woman struggles with coming to terms with her crazy mother with the help of friends who pass around the perfect pair of jeans.  

The goal is to figure out the two movies that overlap in some words creating a new movie described by the clue. Leave your answer in the comments. Good luck!

Riddle Me This: Wreck-It Ralph

SPOILERS!

We've been watching Wreck-It Ralph a lot lately, as in everyday since it was released on Blu-ray. So I've started noticing the little things.

At first Ralph is told Vanellope is just a glitch. Then we find out that she was really once the princess of Sugar Rush that Turbo reprogrammed so he could rule the game as King Candy, and Vanellope glithces because he damaged her code. But if she crosses the finish line, the game will reset and everything will be restored, which does indeed happen.

However, in the very last scene Ralph can see Vanellope racing and she's still using the glitch ability to skip ahead of other racers. I know I shouldn't question an animated movie this much, nor do I know a thing about coding for video games, but...

RIDDLE ME THIS:

If the game reset, how is Vanellope still able to glitch?

New Release: Oz, the Great and Powerful

There is a lot of pressure on anything hoping to reinvent a franchise or capture the magic of a classic film or character and Oz, the Great and Powerful was attempting to do both.  And sadly, failed miserably on many fronts.  Our story starts in sepia tones in 1905 Kansas on the dusty plains where a circus has come to town featuring Oz (James Franco), a magician/con man.  We see that his act is barely holding together (he's seduced too many farmer's daughters) and there just isn't money to be had, let alone enough to share with his assistant (Zach Braff).  To escape one of the men he's wronged, Oz jumps in his hot-air balloon and is swept away by a Tornado to the land of Oz.  He sees improbable flowers, gorgeous mountain tops, beautiful bugs and birds.  Then he meets Theodora, a gorgeous young woman.  This first 25 minutes of wonder and set up work.  There's an originality to it, a glimpse of the whimsy of the original Wizard of Oz.  From here it's mostly downhill.

Theodora (Mila Kunis) is convinced Oz is the wizard who fulfills a prophesy that will save the land of Oz and make our con man king and very wealthy.  She falls for him, and intends to be his queen (much to his chagrin).  However, Oz still has the same smarmy nature - he hasn't been altered by the magic around him yet.  He does confess to a young monkey, Finlay (voiced by Braff) who becomes his servant that he might not be a wizard.  Then we get to the Emerald City and meet Theodora's sister, Evanora (Rachel Weisz) who wants the Wizard to fulfill the prophesy and kill the "wicked witch", and so off he heads in order to get the money.  Before he meets Glinda (Michelle Williams, who everyone knows is the Good Witch of the North), we get a new character, China Girl (Joey King) whose village was destroyed, and she goes along with our heroes.  Of course the first sisters are the wicked ones, and a plan is hatched to defeat them.

The story follows The Wizard of Oz almost exactly, including almost all the details (amassing partners, defeating the sleeping poppy field, etc.) and attempts to link us with all of the main ideas we see in the film we love - Margaret Hamilton's green cackly witch on a broom, the man behind the curtain version of the Wizard, even the cowardly lion.  Usually, I'm all for this kind of self-referential humor - I like being in the know.  But this is lazy, uninspired, and bogged down by some really, really terrible acting on Franco's part.  Gone is the wit and humor he had in 127 Hours where he held the screen alone for 90 minutes.  The writing and delivery of a smile and a dollop of charm just don't cut it when you want to be the king and actually energize the underdogs.  He just doesn't pull it off.  The ladies are okay - they have some terribly dialogue to work with, and Mila Kunis should never have agreed to attempt to be Margaret Hamilton - she isn't.  The not-so-subtle anti-feminist message is pretty overblown too - the women are witches who fight with each other and need a man to settle things.  I did not like this and do not recommend you see it.  Ever.

(the .5 is for the China Girl, and the costumes)

The Lunchtime Poll #24

Not much love for DDL? Maybe it was a bum question. Anyway, thanks to the 3 voters, the majority of whom love their Daniel Plainview.

This week Heather and Veronica want to know:

Who's your favorite Irish actor?

Happy St. Patrick's Day! (I tried to keep the list relatively manageable. All names pulled from the list on this Wiki page. Certain actors excluded at my discretion.)

Triple Feature #20

Last week Jay got 2 out of 3 and tried for the Understudy, but nobody got this little scene from Big Fish.

Poster Scramble: I've scrambled the pieces of a movie poster, some pieces are even flipped around or upside down.

Title Swap: I've replaced the main words of a film title with synonyms.

Understudy: I've replaced the actors' heads in a screenshot with our avatars.

New Releases: 3/15/13

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
As dumb as this looks, I have to admit I actually laughed out loud more than once during the trailer. It actually supports a cast I have some respect for and Jim Carrey as a David Blaine caricature is something I have to see...someday. I may regret it, but this is definitely a future rental.

The Call
I'm thinking this is just a by-the-numbers thriller that no one will remember (that title won't help either) come the end of the month. Clearly a pay-the-mortgage flick for all involved.

DVD Review: Dark Shadows

BEWARE SPOILERS

I want to hang on to the idea that since I've never watched the show on which Dark Shadows was based, I had trouble enjoying it. But I know that's not really the case...

After spurning a witch (Eva Green), Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) is turned into a vampire and locked away for two centuries. After being accidentally set free by a construction crew, Barnabas returns to his estate to find his dysfunctional descendants in desperate need of his help to rebuild the family's fishing business against the same witch that ruined him.

Though I feel as though I've been disappointed by Tim Burton for at least a decade now, I still find myself compelled to watch his films eventually. On the plus side, he can still make films that are visually striking (except for the CGI nightmare that was Alice in Wonderland) and get a fun performance out of Johnny Depp. Overall, I don't really expect much more and rarely get it.

Sadly, I was tricked with Dark Shadows. The film was actually a bit of fun in the beginning with a nice fish-out-of-water plot as Barnabas navigates the wacky 1970s and his new family of Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Chloe Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter and Jackie Earle Haley. It's all hammy and over-the-top, but it works. Barnabas is particularly entertaining because even though he is the protagonist of the story, he's still a vampire who must feed the old fashioned way. And Burton even manages to do a decent job fusing the psychedelic with the gothic.

Unfortunately, there is a final act in which everything simply falls apart. The witch shatters like glass while the obnoxious teenage daughter turned out to be a werewolf all along, but with no explanation. And as the family estate burns to the ground and Barnabas tries to save the reincarnation of his long lost love in the nick of time, it all just peters out, without any sort of proper ending. Until of course the promise (threat?) of a sequel stares us in the face. It's as if they just stopped writing the script.

So I've played the fool once more by suffering Mr. Burton's same old antics. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but I know I'd be lying.

Wednesdays Movie Mashup No. 41

We have another addition to our leaderboard!  Well done Alexa.

Last week's clue: A young doctor's assistant tries to find a different life defending a solider for war crimes.
Answer: The Cider House Rules of Engagement

Leaderboard: 
Ryan - 12
Nick - 9  
James, Dan- 3  
SDG, Keith, Liz - 2
Patrick, Dylan, David, Andrew, Will, Red, Alexa- 1

New Clue: A few older guys decide they want to live like college students again and teach children to play music.

The goal is to figure out the two movies that overlap in some words creating a new movie described by the clue. Leave your answer in the comments. Good luck!

Top 5 Fairy Tale Movies

Disney has taken on most of the famous European/American fairy tales that most children know - though do they know them from being told, or seeing the Disney movie we'll never know.  From The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc. they've covered the genre quite well.  Thankfully, they are actually timeless stories that can be retold and actually stand up to the retelling (though not all the time).

Here are my favorites (which is not to say they're good, but there are parts of them that I like because of some twist on the story

5. Ever After -  A retelling of the "true" story of Cinderella, the young woman raised by an evil stepmother with terrible stepsisters.  In Ever After, Danielle (Drew Barrymore), is the servent in her own home.  She is well read, and eventually meets the Prince (Dougray Scott).  She fights with him about changes he can make with his power -opening libraries, helping the poor, sponsoring artists (DaVinci), etc.  It's kind of a feminist re-telling of Cinderella, but I like it every time.

4. Tangled - This is probably the best recent Disney animated fairy tale.  It returns to the great musicals they produced when I was a kid.  The over-the-top nature of Rapunzel's hair allows for an extremely tall tower.  And the change they make that her hair is magic - giving eternal youth, and that's why it can never be cut and why she was kidnapped by a witch.  Yes, she is rescued by a guy, hardly a Prince, but she knocks him out too.  They're kind of equals except that he has street smarts that help get her what she wants.  Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider - con man - cracks me up.

3. Hook - Seriously, if you were a child during any part of the 1990s, this movie is magic.  We're willing to admit it's also pretty terrible, but I would have done anything to play in the treehouse they built for the lost boys.  The kid, Jack (Charlie Kosmo), is insanely annoying to watch today, but back then he was pretty great.  The colors, the hope, etc. make this movie a joy.

2. Shrek -  The first of the recent movies attempting to make-over the fairy tale.  Shrek is an ogre who becomes the hero.  It's a fairly ham-fisted attempt to tell a new story, but I think that's because it was so cleverly crafted that we've just accepted that it always was a fairy tale that needed to be mixed together an retold.  Unfortunately, the overuse of the characters have given a poor taste to the franchise, but the original is still pretty magical.

1. The Princess Bride - Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, mosters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles... need I say more?

DVD Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

There are a lot of movies that try to capture what it feels like to be in high school - both good and bad.  For me, one of the films that comes closest to capturing the overall experience of high school is The Perks of Being a Wallflower.  I would hardly say I was a wallflower, but I was in turn shy and bitchy, was friends mostly with people outside of my own grade (both older and younger), and definitely wasn't part of the popular crowd.  Thankfully, I went to a small school where I'd been with the same 80 people since kindergarten, so I still really enjoyed high school.

Our hero, Charlie (Logan Lerman), is introduced with quite a back story that we don't learn about until he's baked at a party one night.  He's about to start high school and doesn't have any friends and is having trouble fitting in.  Thankfully, he meets Patrick (Ezra Miller), an off-the-wall senior in Charlie's freshmen shop class.  One day at a football game, Charlie actually says hi to Patrick and meets his step-sister Sam (Emma Watson) and she brings Charlie into their social group of "misfit toys".  He gets to date, make friends, learn about all kinds of things, and  begin to heal from all the baggage he brought with him.  He definitely falls a little in love with Sam, but of course that can't work out right away.

I was amazed at how much I liked Ezra Miller and Emma Watson in this - it speaks well of their acting ability that very quickly I'd completely forgotten about Kevin and Hermione, respectively.
From this description, it might be hard to see why this movie is amazing, but you'll have to just believe that to me, it was.  I can see if you have a different kind of background or your high school experience was particularly good or bad, this movie might not make much sense to you or you might not like it much, but for me this was really able to grab some of the best and truest pieces of high school - how it feels, all day every day, and is never the same and everything feels larger than life and you have an ability to live through it, and at the same time you're really sure that everyone will figure out you're a fraud.  The ability of film to capture a feeling that complicated is rare.

The Lunchtime Poll #23

A better turn out this week, so thanks for that. It seems most of us are at least curious about those pesky deleted scenes, but do not believe they influence the final product. Of course, if we get into "Director's Cuts" that opens a whole new can of worms, but alas, we shan't got there.

This week Heather and Veronica want to know:

Of Daniel Day-Lewis' three Best Actor winning roles, which is the most deserving?

A couple weeks back, Mr. Day-Lewis set a new record by winning his third Oscar for Best Actor. So tell us your favorite.

Triple Feature #19

Alexa (via email), James and David split last week's round:

Poster Scramble: I've scrambled the pieces of a movie poster, some pieces are even flipped around or upside down.

Title Swap: I've replaced the main words of a film title with synonyms.

Understudy: I've replaced the actors' heads in a screenshot with our avatars.