John’s Movie Musings

Picture the scene.  Some lazy Saturday afternoon, a writer is recovering from a rough night in Hollywood.  He’s on his fourth rerun of Quantum Leap when he changes the channel to Groundhog Day.  Despite the haze in his mind, a neuron manages to fire a single spark.  Our writer calls up his buddy and says, “Dude.  I got an idea for a movie.”

And so we have Source Code.  Thankfully, Quantum Leap and Groundhog Day are both awesome, so their combination isn’t crappy.  Here, we get a dude (Jake Gyllenhaal) jumping leaping into the mind of a dead guy.  Or soon-to-be dead guy.  He’s got eight minutes to find a bomb before it goes off.  When he gets blown into Chunky Beef Stew, he restarts the level and tries again.

Now repeatedly showing people the same eight minutes is a dangerous formula.  Thankfully, things are handled well and every jump leap seems new and interesting.  It tries to take the serious Sci-Fi road, but Jake manages to squeeze some humor out of his situation.  It all works great for a fun, Summer Movie kinda ride.

If you miss Quantum Leap, check out Source Code.  And yes, that stupid title is stupid.  Check it out anyway.

Grade: B

There comes a time in all of us when our mouth will say something our brain cannot comprehend. Things like, “No thanks, I have had enough bacon.” Or, “Ya know, that Nickleback song isn’t too bad.” For me it was, “I think Ben Affleck is pretty talented.”

Years ago, Mr. Affleck had an epiphany; he would get behind the camera instead of in front of it. That stroke of genius gave us Gone Baby Gone, a fantastic kidnapping thriller you should have seen by now. For The Town, Affleck directs again but mixes things up by casting himself in the lead role. I should have maybe held that info until the end because you now know this movie isn’t as good.

The Town is your basic heist flick. A group of cons need “one last job” before walking away to paradise. Lucky for us, things go bad and there’s a story worth seeing. Well, some of it. The problem with this formula is that all of the lead-up is filler. I know one of the gang is gonna be angry and want to stay. I don’t care about the love interest’s nonsensical choices, nor the last three heist movies I saw them in. Just give me some dudes gunning their way through a botched robbery.

I’ve been much harsher on The Town here than just after seeing it. It’s well produced, well acted, and had some good tension. I had no idea who was gonna survive to the end, so that’s a plus.  I’d say it’s worth checking out, but only if you’re in the mood for the formula.

Grade: B-

Despite Charlie Sheen’s efforts to make every other actor appear normal, we all know Mel Gibson’s gravy leaves a few biscuits uncovered. But as an actor, I still like the guy. When he’s angry, he can get this crazy look in his eyes that says, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do to you, but I’m gonna like it.” Basically a foreshadow that something awesome is about to happen.

America loves a good redemption story. Those take time, however. During the seasons before that happy ending, actors who act like idiots do time in smaller films. Those that don’t take this path must wait on Tarantino. Edge of Darkness is film #1 (of many, I’m sure) in Mel’s recovery. Sometimes, these small-budget thrillers can produce real gems. I can’t think of an example just now, so obviously most are crap. Or at least forgettable. But I like the genre, so I make room for them in my cinematic diet.

Now a good thriller requires a certain amount of intelligence to write. Capable writers will be snatched up by the bigger films and those left can create exciting scenes for Crazy-Eyes Mel. Great. But villains tend to be stupid with the entire story hinging on that fact. When I finished Edge of Darkness, I liked it. There are some great scenes (maybe even memorable, *gasp), but given some thought, the less it holds up. There were too many moments when characters should not have made the decisions they did. Had they been smarter, there wouldn’t have been a movie.

Edge of Darkness will survive a single rental.

Grade: C+

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost make movies for movie lovers.  Shaun of the Dead began a trilogy of sorts, honoring mocking specific genres.  First with zombie horror, then Hot Fuzz slow-motion side-jumped into action films.  Paul beams us up into science fiction.

None of these films ever do well at the Box Office because they are made for a specific individual.  Someone who has seen a ton of movies and gets all of the inside jokes.  Someone like me.

For example, if you don’t laugh when Jason Bateman says, “Boring conversation, anyway” after putting a bullet into a CB radio, then Paul is not for you.  If, on the other hand, you just spat your Mountain Dew all over the keyboard after reading that, then pony yourself over to the cineplex, my friend.  You have a date with Paul.

Seth Rogan voices the little green man, and does a great job at giving some personality to the CGI.  Kristen Wiig is also in this.  I’ve never been a big fan of her and she does nothing to win me over here, but some of you may think she’s funny.  There are a couple of other cameos I’ll not mention, but they all play well into the “inside joke” point of the movie.

Paul is a tough movie to review.  I laughed at all the jokes, so as the cinematic equivalent of a stand-up comedian, it gets high praise.  As a film, hopefully you know if this is for you.  If you’ve enjoyed their other two outings, then definitely put this on your list.  It’s not as good as Shaun of the Dead, but still on par with Hot Fuzz.

Grade: B+

The Social Network opens with a classic line from Mark Zuckerberg’s soon-to-be ex-girlfriend, “You are probably going to be a very successful computer person. But you’re going to go through life thinking that girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd. And I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that that won’t be true. It’ll be because you’re an asshole.”  These few lines set the major theme of the movie, and anyone with a Facebook account probably couldn’t agree more… if not having a few other choice words for the guy.

Recently, the only Facebook drama has been around Zuckerberg’s “missteps” in regards to privacy.  No, misstep is too kind.  The guy wipes his ass with the things we hold dear.  But all this drama is nothing compared to ooze Facebook crawled from.  Lawsuits galore.  Hacking the Harvard network.  Destroyed friendships.  All things Hollywood loves for a movie.  Which is great since a movie about Facebook sounds about as exciting as one about Battleship and Monopoly (both becoming movies, btw).

Shocking everyone, The Social Network was up for Best Picture this year.  And you know what?  It deserved every bit of that nomination.  Justin Timberlake, who I’ve sworn to abhor, scored major points as the guy/douchebag that started Napster.  I’ve heard major liberties were taken with the story, but all the lawsuits were real, Zuckerberg wanted to create a site comparing women to farm animals, and his business cards really did say “I’m CEO…Bitch.”

Despite the great story, it has one of my favorite endings of all time.  It ends as brilliantly as it begins. Even if you don’t have a Facebook account (and who doesn’t these days?), you need to see this.

Grade: A+

Those first twenty minutes of a movie are so crucial to your enjoyment of it.  Many moons ago I was lecturing some friends on the awesomeness of The Hurt Locker.  A topic I assumed had plenty of support.  “Meh,” they both said.  “It wasn’t that great.”  A double facepalm later, I built my case, scene by scene, on why they were undeniably, irrefutably, wrong.  Their defense was a simple, “I just couldn’t get into it.”

And so goes Red.

Before watching, I knew virtually nothing about this movie.  Based on a graphic novel, bits were shown at Comic Con to huge raves.  There was a crappy showing at the box office, and it eventually showed up on some “Best Movie Nobody Saw” lists at the end of the year.  Netflix even had it listed over 4 stars.  All of that immediately put me into “well I gotta check this out” mode.  (Note: I also get into that mode whenever I hear, “We have this new brew on tap.”)

Red is basically about Bruce Willis being a retired bad-ass, Mary-Louise Parker being the mousy girl on a new adventure, and John Malkovich, well, being John Malkovich  (Long way for that joke, sorry).  Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren have big roles, too.  Plus a few of those actors who make you say, “oh hey, that guy.”  There’s some CIA/NSA stuff going down and lots of things blow up.  John Malkovich acts insane.  All good things, but I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe you’ll like it.  If you do, let me know.

Grade: C-

If you haven’t heard of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, where have you been?  On a recent flight, I saw three different people reading the books.  And those were just the Analogs.  That same flight, I wrapped up book one on my Kindle app with an air of smugness towards my literary technophobes.  Thankfully, I finished before I had to turn off my book prior to landing.

You’re probably also aware that the series hails from Sweden, like Ikea and fjords (not really.  Never ask a Swede about their fjords).  Did you know the Swedes have already made the series into movies?  If you’re the type that prefers to wait for the movie, but also likes to read, you can watch these with subtitles and do both.  Win!

Despite the titles (as cool as they are), the stories don’t revolve around a dragon-tattooed girl who plays with fire and hornets.  The original title is translated as Men Who Hate Women.  That’s the theme that runs constant through the series and should answer your questions about why Lisbeth Salander (said girl) isn’t as central as you think she should be.  You see, back in the day, the author witnessed a gang rape of a 15-yr old (also named Lisbeth).  He was so haunted by his inaction, he kept a strong theme of sexual violence against women through the series.  Perhaps as a way to deal with that past regret.

Which brings me to another point.  You could easily place these into the Dark Thriller category (also called the WTF Did I Just Watch? genre) like Se7en or Oldboy.  I tend to enjoy these movies and foreign films offer a different, sometimes better, vibe than what we get out of Hollywood.  But remember that European movies have different standards when it comes to sex and violence.  Be warned.  The American versions start this December with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.  We’ll see how those turn out.

By far, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the best of the series.  Parts two and three are really one story and have a different feel to them.  As my friend put it, “They’re like a bad James Bond knock-off with a super-villain”  I did enjoy the other two (probably the characters more than the story), but my friend makes a good point.

All three movies are on Netflix Instant.  If gritty, dark, disturbing thrillers are your thing, check ‘em out.  Or just wait and see what Hollywood does with them this year.

Grade: A