Drive (2011)

This movie is SLICK. It is well written and well directed. The art direction is moody and dark with a retro vibe. There is no gratuitous sex, or big boobed women thrown in as love interests, and the ending rocks. I want to see it again, and I will probably buy it.

Have you seen Pale Rider, the 1985 Clint flick? He plays a preacher who rides into an embattled mining camp and helps the pathetic miners get their shit together. He is obviously NOT A PREACHER. He is more a super-hero. Well, a similar thing goes on here. Ryan Gosling plays a stunt man who moonlights as a wheel man with extremely strict rules for clients and for himself. As for the rest of his personality, he is a cipher; almost childlike in his focus on cars and driving. There is nothing else in his life. In that aspect, he is more like Jean Reno's character in The Professional. Ryan makes a mistake though. He becomes attached to his neighbor, played by Carey Mulligan, and her son. This attachment is a weakness, and it bites him in the butt.

There are great car chase scenes here, but they are not long. They are short and powerful and intelligent. Driving and escaping for this guy is not all about speed, it's about strategy (speed when needed).

The acting is great. The supporting actors are awesome. Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston are top notch. It's a violent film, but the violence is not elegant or stylized. It's more Sopranos-ish. I want to watch this again. It's fun to watch something so good. This is what movies are supposed to be. Very nice.

FYI - guys will love this film. Girls will too. It's for everybody. Ryan does not take of his shirt, but he's hot fully dressed.

Hanna (2011)

This is an interesting film, and by that I mean it was a piece of crap. It is a combination cartoon, fairy tale and music video, with some very graphic violence thrown in the mix. So far, not so unusual, right? Fairy tales are gruesome, and comics and music videos certainly can be.

This movie then adds A-list actors like Cate Blanchett, Saoirse Ronan, Erik Bana (is he A list?), plus fantastic character actors Tom Hollander and Olivia Williams. The bad guys are Germans or government agents, which is always good. They're easy to dislike. Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice) directed. Since his prior films were hits, he had money to play with on this one. The sound track is interesting, the editing is schizophrenic (seems to be required in this type of film), but the sets were totally fake. That might have been the intention. Who knows.

They sure as hell didn't pay for a script. Remember the TV show that made Jessica Alba a star - I think it was Dark Angel? She was a baby that had been bio-engineered to be the perfect warrior, then she escaped with a bunch of other super-powered children and ran from the government forevermore? That's the same plot here. I think the difference primarily is that was a TV show and this is a movie. And Jessica Alba was better at the role than Saoirse Ronan. No shit.

I've seen the three Joe Wright movies mentioned here and detested them all. Will avoid him in the future. This made money, I believe, so he'll be doing more. Be warned.

This movie is 111 minutes, but I would have sworn it was 2.5 hours or something. It dragged. Rent the Jessica Alba series and skip this.

Meek's Cutoff (2010)

Director Kelly Reichardt has created some powerful movies, such as Old Joy, and Wendy and Lucy. Both of these are quiet films, but they have a lot to say. I particularly liked Wendy and Lucy, which also starred Michelle Williams. But Meek's Cutoff moves from the realm of quiet and thoughtful into the realm of really boring.

This is the story of a few families heading out on the Oregon Trail in 1845. THey hire a buffoon named Meek, who eventually leads them on a shortcut. What follows is a really sad version of guys being lost and not wanting to admit it. The women in this group were not consulted regarding decisions and did not get a vote when a vote was taken to decide direction and the resulting fate of the wagon train.

The acting is good here, as is the cinematography. The editing and dialog are not as good. But the overall problem with the film is it's boring and did not hold my interest.

Don't Look Now (1973)

This is a good story, well acted, with a fun ending. Plus it has a very long, groundbreaking and famous sex scene between Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. I did not know it had a famous sex scene, so I'm watching, and watching, and watching, and thinking - this is a little long. This is a little graphic. I wonder if this had distribution problems? Forget distribution problems! According to Wiki, Warren Beatty actually flew in to visit the set because he was worried about what was going on. Warren Beatty was worried.

It's a ghost story / suspense / almost horror movie. It's based on a Daphne du Maurier book, so it's got a gothic feel. It's shot on location in Venice and the English countryside, so it looks fantastic. It has - not just a priest - but a bishop. It's spooky. I'm watching it again.

Beware: it starts with the death of a child. The question is - does she stay dead?

Downton Abbey (2010)

This just took home a ton of Emmy awards, and I am psyched!! If you liked Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice, pick this baby up. Julian Fellowes wrote it, because apparently winning the Oscar for writing Gosford Park (another upstairs / downstairs) wasn't enough. I hope he keeps writing.

This is wonderful. There are nasty, nasty people all throughout this house, as well as great people, and watching them intermingle is a joy. This takes place just prior to WWI, and the etiquette for everything is mind-boggling. I recommend this to everyone.

Contagion (2011)

Where the HELL is the sun? My tan is fading. Well, today's rain officially started the pre-Oscar movie season for me. Mom and I went to Contagion, the new Steven Soderbergh film, and it's a real crowd pleaser. It is creepy good because it is so real. This shit could happen. And now I know that unless you are a paranoiac with a bomb shelter and a stash of food, you may get stuck in your own house, without gas, without water, etc., if an epidemic arises. But that will be the least of your worries. Looters, hedge funds, and crazy bloggers, a viable vaccine and kidnappings are all problems as well.

This movie is great cinema. It is tightly written and directed (think Ocean's 11 about a scary epidemic - so very little humor), with an amazing ensemble case in which none of them is the movie's "star". (Think Traffic.) It has mood enhancing music, top quality editing, a fantastic ending, it's very slick, but has no explosions or blood.

Definitely watch this one. You'll want to stock up on tuna fish, TP and water afterward, believe me.

Persepolis (2007)

So, you know how high school is hard because you feel like you don't fit in, and everything is such a big deal, and every word people say is momentous? Well, this is a story of a young girl growing up in Tehran as the Shah was overthrown, the country devolves into war, is attacked by Iraq, women are forced into the veil, and people turn on each other. Her parents send her away to Vienna for school, and she's even more of an outsider there. When she comes home, everything is wrong and she has no idea how to move forward with life. So she does, for good or for bad.

Every time someone complains about the U.S., I think of movies like this. We're not perfect, but we're ok. This is an animated film, which I love. I love the anti-serious nature of animation for a serious topic. And this film is first rate. It was nominated for an Oscar, Catherine Deneuve voices the mom; pick it up. You'll learn a lot and enjoy the film in the process.

Wallis and Edward (2005 - TV)

This is an interesting re-telling of the Wallis and Edward story. Edward, heir to the throne of England, fell in love with Wallis in London while she was married to her second husband. He could only marry a royal virgin, not a twice divorced American. He eventually abdicated the thrown to his brother Bertie (Queen Elizabeth's dad and the protagonist in the King's Speech) to be with Wallis, scandalizing the nation and creating a family rift that never healed. Edward and Wallis lived in exile the rest of their lives. It is supposedly the most heart-wrenching love story of all time.

I've always heard the stories that Wallis captivated Edward with brothel tricks she picked up while living in China. This movie implies that and other rumors are ridiculous, and prefers us to believe this was a great love. This is a Hallmark-sweet movie, and I'm more inclined to believe that Wallis had some extreme sexual skills rather than believe this saccharine story. Skip this and watch Young Victoria instead for a more believable love story.

Moonstruck (1987)

This movie is kick-ass. Olympia Dukakis and Cher both won Oscars for this, but I cannot stress how many amazing performances there are: Nic Cage (what happened?) and Danny Aiello and grandpa and the main cashier at Ronnie's bakery. They are all stellar.

The staging of the movie is a bit like a cartoon or fairy tale. I hadn't watched it in a long time, so I was struck by the staging, and I think it was a great idea. If this had been a heavy drama about love, the dialog - hilarious dialog - would not have been the focus. This movie is about how love ruins your life, but not in a bad way. It needs the lightness of Dean Martin singing in the background.

There are great lines here. It's a lot of fun - watch it again. BTW, Cher is gorgeous in this movie. I cannot believe how she has messed herself up with surgery, but what the heck. She's an artist.

Win Win (2011)

This movie is good in so many ways. Mainly it has a fantastic cast that does a great job with what they were given. Paul Giamatti is the lawyer / dad / wrestling coach. He is the straight man in this, the guy who has too much on his plate and makes a bad decision at the beginning of the film. It's that bad decision that keeps this from being a really good movie. The audience knows this is the built-in conflict, just like the fake break-up in a romantic comedy. It lessens the film. We know it will work out.

Nevertheless, this is so much better than most movies you will see. The supporting cast is a dream. Amy Ryan (The Wire) plays the wife, the two best friends are Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development) and Bobby Cannavale (Third Watch, Station Agent), and these guys steal scenes. The film treads as a comedy because of these guys. And then we have Paulie from Rocky (Burt Young), and one of my favs, Melanie Lynskey (Heavenly Creatures, Ever After, and the crazy neighbor in Two and a Half Men). These guys rock the film, and the director, Thomas McCarthy, does a great job giving them them time to show their stuff. The kid wrestler, Alex Shaffer, is fantastic - a real natural. This is his first film.

But the movie is really predictable, which holds it down. It's a writing problem, and the director was also the writer. Well, I'm jealous. It may not be perfect, but it's way better than I can do.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

OK, to me this is the opposite of scary. This is exactly the kind of movie that gets me thinking (one more time) - what the hell is scary anyway? Why are some movies scary and others stupid and laughable? After years of personal study (translation - I'm a lazy ass sitting on the couch watching horror), my only solid answer is: it's personal. It differs for every person. I get far more scared by a psychological thriller or by the unknown-and-unstoppable whatever in the back of the closet than I do by Leatherface.

Leatherface and his family are laughable, ridiculous figures. The dad beats up a girl with a broom (the bristly end) and ties her up. The brother plays a buffoonish but weak bully who intimidates people with his apparent insanity rather than any real menace. And Leatherface? He runs around with a chainsaw (it's on), yet manages to sneak up on people - and catch them. This last part particularly bothers me. I do NOT want to test this, but I feel that a reasonably alert person not carrying a chainsaw should be able to outrun Leatherface.

The movie is gory, but that gets old in a minute. I find myself watching and saying - "Well, that's a pretty fake looking corpse. That one is better. Oh that skull just looks silly. Those hatchet blows look like they're hitting the floor, not a body." If I'm watching in that manner, the movie is not gripping. The only scary part to me is the screaming. The heroine, Sally, can really scream, and a good scream can get under your skin. She can't deliver dialog, but her scream is great.

Some critics think the acting here is good. Some think this is great social commentary. I think those critics are high, which would definitely make this movie more tolerable. While this had a huge influence on the slasher genre (a guy jumping out of closets, a cannibal family, power tools, etc.), it's a crap film. If you have to watch it, perhaps try the mind-altering substance?

Night of the LIving Dead (1968)

This baby holds up. It's in the Library of Congress for a reason. It gets under my skin, and it turns my stomach. There are a few scenes I cannot watch because they're too disgusting, and that's saying something. It has a mood; zombies in today's movies are faster, but these guys are slow and steady. They just keep coming, and the ending rocks. This is truly a groundbreaking movie.

If you haven't watched it lately, or at all, pick it up. You will see so many points in this film that have been copied that you may not be surprised, but I'm pretty sure you'll have a great time.