valley girl

wow, this one is terrible! this isnt really even a movie at all, its more like a soundtrack commerical! we follow the boy from the city, who is totally punk rock, man, as he decided he wants to have a relationship with the cute girl from the valley who's like, totally 80's. poor acting, poor writing, poor music, and especially poor 80's fashion kill this one before the beginning credits are even done! this 80's flick is best forgotten...

relative values

another one of those period british movies set in the 50's about a british man who falls in love with an american and brings her home to meet the family. though this is a pretty big cast, the film feels very small and wafer thin. the story itself is poorly told and we have very little interest in the characters themselves, were it not for the likability of many on the cast. colin firth, stephen fry, and julie andrews bring as much as they can to the characters who still feel about as thick as cardboard. were it not for these three actors, the movie would be almost completely unwatchable.

the legend of 1900

i had never heard of this movie before, and was very impressed with it! it follows the life of an infant abandoned on a steamliner at the turn of the century. we see that boy grow up on the steamliner as he learns life lesson from his adopted father figure. he grows to be a musical piano playing virtuoso, considered the best in the world! the man named 1900, due to his being discovered by his father on new years day of the new century, is marvelously played by tim roth. we get a real sense of the joy he gets from playing for the guests, but also the melon collie at the fact that he has no real home other than the ship. he decides, because he doesnt have any birth certificate or anything, to stay on the boat all his life. we follow him through his musical triumphs, playing in competition against the man who invented jazz music, as well as his lows as he sees the girl of his dreams but is unable to talk with her or follow her off the boat when it docks in new york city. it is billed as a fable, and there is much to learn from this interesting tale of a man who travels his imagination through music, but is unable to travel off the boat he was born on. this is a moving and enjoyable tale that i am glad i got the chance to see. it is truly majestic.

being human

this movie, which is a series of short stories, is pretty bad. it jumps around from different time periods and tells different stories about a man who is in love, each man is played by robin williams, so its a bit strange. we start off with a simple man who's wife is taken by vikings, then we jump to the story of a slave who must die with his master in ancient rome. the next story is of a spanish conquistador who must save his crew from a shipwreck, and a story set in modern day. each setting is meant to draw us closer and closer in to the man who must try and become brave. in each story he is presented with a difficult situation that he must stand up against. in each progressive vignette shows the man getting more and more bold in his courage. this might have been a pretty interesting movie if it werent for the narrator! she totally ruins the feel of the film and her mindless meanderings ruined the entire movie for me. if they had ditched the terrible voice over, it probably would have gotten at least two more stars...

the great outdoors

diana and i have been watching way too many 80's movies lately! i had always heard good things about this one and how it was one of john candy's funniest movies. i dont know if candy's style of humor is something i dont get, or if it is just too much a product of its time because this movie isnt that great. the story follows candy's family as they make plans for their summer trip up to the cabin. soon after they arrive, their friends stop by unannounced to join them. not too pleased about it, candy's family makes the best of it and the two families try to have a good time anyway. along the way they have some racoon troubles (which seems like it was taken straight out of 'caddyshack' as the animals try to conspire against our campers), a couple run-ins with a big bear, a boating episode, and some interaction with the locals. candy is big and lovable, which must have been why he had a career at all, and dan aykroyd is obnoxious as the annoying guest. the two of them play well of each other, which is the only redeeming part of this campy movie.

dont you forget about me

this is a documentary about the filmmaker john hughes and his five film run that defined a generation and explained what it was to be a teen in the 80's. four filmmakers decided to interview many of the people from those films and to eventually try to track down john hughes himself, who left hollywood almost 20 years ago and has hardly been heard from since.
the interviews are interesting, catching up with some of the old cast members from films like 'breakfast club', 'weird science', 'sixteen candles', and others. all of the actors glow about how amazing john hughes was and how they all miss his voice in films today. all of this is well and good, but much of their praising films of the past come at the expense of talking about how terrible movie are today. granted, i might agree with them on much of what they say, but i'm sure adults felt the same about these hughes movies when they were coming out. its all a matter of perspective, really. everyone things that movies that came out when they were 12-18 are the best ever and everything else is a pale comparison. except that this generation will think that the last generations and future generations stuff sucks too. you cant win with this type of complaining. another thing that bugged me about the movie is that the film makers try to talk with john hughes himself by going to his house and trying to get an interview. hey guys, he left hollywood for a reason. he doesnt do interviews for a reason. i dont know what that reason is, but ambushing him at his private house is not going to change his mind, i'm sure of it! since the film was completed, john hughes passed away so i guess we will never get those answers from him, but this movie doesnt really do his memory justice either.

man of the century

there is a really great movie in here somewhere, but this isnt it. dont get me wrong, this movie is pretty fun, but the concept is what makes it good, not the movie itself. the concept is this: the main character, johnny twenties, acts like he lives in the nineteen twenties. but he lives in the 90's. an interesting concept, to say the least, but this independent film just cant quite reach the heights of what its trying to do. he goes about his life as a newspaper journalist talking like someone who just came out of a speak easy! he's got a grand dame who he's crackerjack over, he goes after the big stories looking to crack the big one, ace. the funny part is that he's the only one who actually talks like he's a from the twenties and everyone else is baffled by the whole thing. its a fantastic concept that only barely scratches the surface of what could be a great film. the movie, unfortunately, gets bogged down by spending too much time with his girlfriend, some bad guys, and a dinner party with johnny's family. if this movie were given the all-star treatment and made into a big hollywood production, it could be grand. here's hoping that it gets picked up and remade!

her alibi

this movie is pretty lame, even for an 80's movie. the set up is that tom selleck is a crime writer who has run out of ideas. he decides to get some inspiration by going to the court house and see whats shaking. he runs into a woman who is in a bit of a bind, legally. selleck offers to be her alibi so she can get off. she takes him up on the offer and goes back with him to his house. turns out she isnt quite as innocent as he thought, and the bad guys follow them back to the house and cause a bit of trouble. the whole thing is fairly lame, but doggonnit, i really liked it! why? two simple words: tom selleck! i dont know what it is about that guy, but i would enjoy him in just about anything! no matter what is going on, he makes it so much better. he's kind of like richard dean anderson (macguyver, if you didnt know) in that there is just something inherently magnetic about him. do i have a little bit of a man crush on him? why yes, i certainly do, but who can blame me? i would have to say that the movie itself gets one star, but tom selleck gets five stars. that leaves us with an average of 3 stars. take that for what its worth, i guess.

princess of thieves

so i guess this is one of those disney straight to video 'sequels'. granted, it has no connection what so ever with 'robin hood: prince of thieves', but they must have figured they could make a little money if they piggy back that classic. the story follows the daughter of robin hood and maid marian as she has to go out and save nottingham and her father from the evil men trying to take power away from the rightful king. the story is pretty bland and seems to hit all the same notes as the traditional robin hood story: join a band of thieves in the woods, take part in an archery contest, etc. there is little to no action involved in the movie, and the love story is quite silly. it seems that the only reason it was made is because they got kiera knightly, so they quick threw something together so they could use her. the major problem with the movie, aside from a lame script, is the poor directing. during some of the bits, most notably the archery contest and the final showdown at the end, it is almost impossible to tell what is going on. the camera is always too close to the action, we can never really get a handle on what is taking place because all we see are close-ups and strange angles. its frustrating to see disney cheapen the memory of 'prince of thieves' with this garbage, i guess thats why it was sent straight to video, huh?

2012

roland emmerich has been making disaster movies for decades. some of his biggest ones are 'independence day', 'godzilla', and 'the day after tomorrow'. he's been blowin' stuff up real good for a long time now. well, this movie seems to be a culmination of all of that destruction as he goes for broke in destroying the entire planet. the story follows a bunch of different people as they begin to realize that the ancient mayan prediction that the world would end in 2012 is coming true. fortunately there is a scientist, played by chiwetel ejiofor, who saw it all coming and warned the world's leaders in time. the story is pretty unbelievable, but the special effects are breathtaking! on first look the film seems like just a hollow excuse to see stuff destroyed, but due to the actors involved, there is a level of weight to the destruction. thanks to ejiofor, oliver platt, danny glover and others, the story is made personal. its not a great movie, but it is better than i would have suspected.

bubba ho-tep

i had high hopes for this one. bruce campbell is the very definition of a cult icon, so i was interested to check out this rather strange film. in it campbell plays elvis pressley (or maybe just and old guy who thinks he's elvis) and is an old folks home. his best friend is a black guy who claims to be john f kennedy. well, the two of them find out that the place they are at seems to be recently haunted by the ghost of a long dead egyptian mummy. as we see these two old guys try to deal with their failing health, they also attempt to combat the zombie remains of the haunted mummy. i was hoping for something fun and interesting, but it was really flat and boring. i guess i just dont get it because it was pretty lame to me. pass.

the bumblebee flies anyway

this film follows the story of a boy, played by elijah wood, who wakes up in a medical youth ward with to memory of his life before. as he begins to piece together his own history, he discovers that everyone else in the ward is dying from different incurable conditions. he himself isnt dying, but decides to stay there anyway until he can really understand his past. along the way he befriends many of the fellow patients. among them is a dying boy who's sister comes to visit. the boy asks elijah wood to entertain her while she's visiting him. he does and the two of them strike up a romance. he tries to make sense of all this while still trying to answer all the questions about his slowly emerging memories of a crash before he arrived. the movie isnt very good, we never really feel for elijah wood's character as he explores his past. the romance between the two characters is done fairly well, but the random ending involving a cart and an attic is rather strange and poorly conceived.

the winter guest

kind of an interesting movie that follows a woman, played by emma thompson, who meets up with her mom who is suffering some health problems and a son who meets a girl that he falls for. the whole movie is pretty low key, most of it is just spent with thompson and her mom talking about life and the changes they are facing with age. they go for a walk and share a level of honesty that has been missing in their relationship. while they are gone, the teenage son skips school and meets up with this girl that he's seen a few times before. they head back to his house and find themselves drawn closer and closer. there isnt much that goes on in the movie, but its the small moments of discussion and revelation that make it pretty interesting. its well directed by alan rickman, and the story wanders around a bit with the different relationships developing, but there isnt much to the film.

chronicles of narnia: prince caspian

i was rather disappointed by this one. i really loved the first narnia movie, but this one seemed to completely abandon all the fun and wonder of the first. instead of magic, we get the military. thats not the narnia i remember reading about as a boy! the story starts with the four children one year after the last time they go to narnia. they miss it and hope to return again soon. well, they get their wish but find that narnia has changed a lot in the year since they left. what was only one year in our world was a thousand years in narnia. their kingdom is gone and its thought that all the narnian creatures are extinct. a mean group of people have come and have taken over narnia. their soon-to-be king, prince caspian, is on the run from his evil uncle who wants the thrown. well, this brings the four kids back to help put things right again. the story is pretty straight forward and we get to meet a few new characters, but over all its not very good. what was so good in small doses in the first narnia film, the climactic battle, takes center stage here and overwhelms the whole movie so that it feels more like a military exercise than a fun children's film. aslan and the ice queen show up as well, but neither of them really play a part in the story. they are merely magical distractions from the sword play that seems to be the focus this time around. with all the fighting and declarations of bravery, we dont have any time at all for any character development or any reason to care about narnia a thousand years later.

me without you

a story following the life of two girls who grew up together but took very different paths with their lives is not very good. in fact, trying to remember this movie is kind of hard because it was pretty forgettable. the story starts off with the two girls, one a sweet girl, and the other a rebel. the sweet girl looks to the other girl as a role model and an example of what she really wants to be. but as the film progresses and as she tries to go after the things that her rebel friend does, there is a quick descent and she finds that her friends lifestyle wasnt quite as amazing as she thought. at one point both of them are going after the same guy (of course), he is a professor at the college the sweet girl attends. they both have an affair with him and destroys their friendship. the whole thing was pretty sad and the characters are not very likable in the first place. we never care about them or the sordid paths their lives took.

easy virtue

the wife and i have been going through a bit of a 'period piece' phase in our movie watching, and i've got to say, i rather enjoy it. many of the films we have been watching are set in a victorian sort of era where everyone is a bit stuffy and cant really speak their mind. this film starts off just like that. it follows a man and woman who get married and he brings her home to meet the very british, very stuffy family. she is, of course, a coarse american who does speak her mind, which leads to many many problems. the mother is all pomp and circumstance, and the father is shut off from the world because he has to suffer all that pomp. as the movie unfolds we see the happily married young couple become not so happy. he is beginning to realize that if he wants to stay with her he will have to give up his britishness. jessica biel plays the young american very well, willing to meet the family, but not willing to become what they want her to. as it plays out we learn a lot about the family and why they are the way they are, and the marriage between them must become something else or it must be broken. the acting is great and the sets are fantastic as we watch the family and marriage crumble amidst the grand emptiness. while all this decay is starting to show, the film still keeps a sense of lightness to it.

the wonder of it all

ive never really had much of an interest in the story of how we got to the moon. unlike most little boys, i never wanted to be an astronaut when i grew up. even still, this documentary was very interesting. the makers of this film went around and culled through a ton of archival film and found some amazing new shots of the space program in the sixties and ever since. they also talked with seven of the twelve men who have actually walked on the moon. this is the highlight of the film, to hear from the men themselves what it was like, to give first hand accounts of what fears they had, what they expected, and the reality of being up there. many of these astronauts dig deeper than they ever have for interviews and share the real stories. the most interesting part of the film is when they each talk about what impact their moon landings had on their faith and spirituality. we get to really sense the wonder of it all (oh, so thats where the title comes from!) the only unfortunate part about this film is that they dont include any interviews with neil armstrong. his involvement would have made it even better, i'm sure.

plunkett & macleane

this victorian era film is about two thiefs who break out of prison. one of them cons the other into helping him gain wealth so that he can return to the higher ranks of victorian society. well, they dont have any money so they begin robbing carriages filled with wealthy people in order to reenter that world. they become a sort of masked bandit that the wealthy fear, but love to talk about. the man who reenters the aristocracy loves all the attention (even though no one knows it him), and he gets more and more bold with his heists. the film is thick with style, all the fast editing and strange angles and even stranger soundtrack. some of the fun of watching the movie is knowing that its a small reunion of some of the actors from 'trainspotting'. over all, its kind of fun, but kind of all over the place. there are characters that pop up every once in a while that dont seem to serve much purpose. one of the best scenes involves a gun duel, but it seems awfully disjointed from the rest of the movie. still, it was a bit of fun, so i give it a pass.

hook

i remember back when this one originally came out i was really excited about it and couldnt wait to see it. when i finally did see it i was kind of like 'meh'. all these years later i find i have the same response: meh. on paper it looks amazing: robin williams, the boy who never grew up, playing the boy who never grew up; dustin hoffman bringing a certain depth and gravitas to the role of captain hook; even julia roberts as the cute little tinkerbell. what could possibly go wrong? well, this is one of those times where the whole is less than all of its parts. the story is set many years after the original peter pan, with peter coming to our world and growing up. he got married, has two kids, and seems to have a pretty good, if busy, life. they go to visit their great aunt wendy and the kids get kidnapped by hook to try and get peter to come back to neverland for a rematch. much of the problems with this movie stem from the ridiculous stuff with the lost boys and with the kinda creepy love story elements in it. tinkerbell has always been in love with peter, which isnt played so much for its sweetness, but rather as an awkward wedge between them. great aunt wendy admits to always loving peter, who is 40 years her junior and happily married, which just kind of adds a sad creepy factor to the movie. the biggest problem over all though, is that there is a lot to look at, all of which looks pretty cool, but there is no heart to any of it. try as speilberg might, there is no depth to this fluff. over all, it felt like a great opportunity wasted. perhaps it will be revisited one day in a remake with someone else at the helm who can really dig in to the depths of the characters and situations.

james and the giant peach

having loved 'nightmare before christmas', i was hoping this film would have the same mischievous dark fun as that one. although there is some of that, this one is no where near as good. granted, it is unfair to compare the two movies, but when the character designs are so similar in style and its made by many of the same people, thos comparisons are inevitable. this one follows the story of james, a boy who lives with his two evil aunts who use him as their own personal slave. as a most unusual peach begins growing on their land, they try to make some money on it by having visitors pay to see it. one night james decides to cut it from the tree and it slowly floats up into the sky! james catches a ride with it and finds that there are some pretty strange creatures living inside the giant peach! among them are a grasshopper, a lady bug, a centipede and others. as the peach floats across the ocean, james and his new friends find many things to do on it, including break into song! the songs are quite forgettable and could have really used danny elfman's dark brilliance instead of randy newman. another big problem with the film is that the story is so paper thin that it has a hard time filling the already short 80 minute run time. the movie is a failure, but a noble failure.

the importance of being earnest

diana and i, in the midst of our english victorian era fascination, watched this film recently. its based on an old play by oscar wilde, and it shows! the film is filled with witty lines and conversations as well as amusing twists and turns that are vintage wilde! the plot is about a couple men who step away from their lives on occasion and pretend to be someone else. this other person they pretend to be just happens to be named earnest. both of these fellows fall in love with women who think their names are earnest and eventually they cross paths with their lovers when they are in their real lives. oh the complications! oh the miscommunication! oh the hilarity! actually, it is pretty funny how things get all mixed up between the men and their ladies. colin firth, who is in just about every victorian era movie, does a great job as the man caught between two lies and two women. this one is worth checking out just for the witty dialog from oscar wilde!

rachel getting married

i had heard good things about this movie, and anne hathaway even got an oscar nomination from the film. the small story is about a woman returning home from rehab to attend her sister's wedding. as the movie unfolds, the reason for her being in rehab in the first place become clear, as well as its impact on the entire family. the movie does a great job of showing what its like to be the black sheep of the family as well as big topics like trust, forgiveness, acceptance, and loss. we feel for hathaway's character as she is put back into a situation where she is blamed for things that she did in her past and we see how hard it can be for those closest to you to forgive and try to move past costly mistakes. this is a good movie. so why am i only giving it two stars? well, because of the marriage itself. the movie spends about 10 minutes of its 90 minute run time on the wedding and its reception. there is no dialog, just shots of people talking and dancing. the wedding itself is not a traditional wedding, its some sort of strange hippie/indian/bollywood/african/drum circle type thing that is so pretentious and overwrought that it quite literally ruined the movie for me. during the ten minutes of this nonsense, i had forgotten about all the great realistic portrayals that came before it. instead it just felt like some sort of cultural mishmash of stuffy arrogance and unrealistic make believe. sorry, but all my positive feelings for the movie were washed away by the incessant impossible fantasy of the wedding itself. people like this and events like this dont actually exist. the movie was a deep drama about life issues and then becomes some sort of fantasy less believable than something from 'care bears' or 'my little pony'.

the education of charlie banks

this film follows charlie banks as he goes from high school to college and tries to find out who exactly he is. he obviously grew up in a family that put education before any sort of social life. charlie doesnt have many friends and seems to be fairly socially awkward. while in high school, he and his one friend decide to go to a party anyway. while there they meet jason ritter's character who has a huge temper problem and ends up getting in a really violent fight. charlie, being the good boy that he is, goes to the police with what he saw. years later, as charlie and his friend are in college, ritter shows up again. having never admitted that he was the one who turned him in, charlie freaks out when ritter arrives. the two of them slowly become friends and it seems that ritter has gotten his temper under control until an incident happens on campus. the two of them must deal with what happened all those years ago- will it end poorly for charlie?
the movie isnt that great, and the direction is mediocre, but what lifts this one one out of the one star category is the fantastic acting by jesse eisenberg. that guy is so good at playing tormented socially stunted outsiders that it elevates a bad movie to ok.

bright star

this film is about a short lived love affair between john keats, a famous poet, and the girl he loves. another victorian era film that is all about the love that is not allowed by society. the girl, played by abbie cornish, is not allowed to marry keats because he does not have any money. that doesnt stop her from continuing her correspondence with him through intimate letters. from time to time he is able to visit her and they share what time they can together. also in the story we see keats writing friend, played by paul schnieder (who has been a favorite of mine since first seeing him in 'the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford'). he is pretty much a big jerk in this movie, even forcing himself upon the family servant and getting her pregnant. this, as is so often the case in these victorian movies, is a romance that blossoms quickly, but is destined to end sadly. the film itself is pretty good with all the leads doing a great job with the story. cornish makes the whole thing very believable as she falls for this hopeless case. even though schneider plays a cad, i still wanted to love the character because of the great presence he brings.