June 26th, 2009
Man…due I feel sorry for Oliver Stone. Boy is it apparent that he had a serious ax to grind against George W. Bush. It’s so transparent that it should be listed at President Obama’s website for transparency: recovery.gov. I was blown away at this amateur hour presentation of George W. Bush’s presidency, or should I say, college life and beyond, scaled down to just a two hour movie. Think about that, everything George W. Bush did, and his family did, scaled down to just a two hour movie. I don’t think so. Like I say, it was a gross hit piece that his theatres on October 17, 2008, two weeks prior to a presidential election that pitted Democrat Barrack Obama against Republic John McCain after two years of democrat surrogates referring to John McCain’s potential election as Bush’s third term. If this isn’t the textbook example of well executed plan than I don’t know what one is, but that’s not the focus.
The first and foremost thing I hated about this movie was how the characters looked and acted like generic robots. I mean come on. The Karl Rove character looked like a train wreck. Colin Powell’s character was nothing like Colin Powell and Richard Dryfuss for Dick Cheney? How about Rob Corddry as Ari Fleisher? I don’t know what happened there, but for a movie this high profile, I would’ve anticipated a better pool of characters or at least some characters that resembled the real life person they were portraying.
I’m obviously not a Washington insider but I have serious doubts about some of the scenes that were portrayed as “the way” Bush ran his administration. There’s one scene where Bush and Cheney are eating lunch and Cheney makes a comment. When he gets ready to excuse himself, Bush says, “Hey vice, remember, I’m the ultimate decider.” This scene just didn’t sit right with me. In several other scenes, Bush is portrayed as a man inflicting his religion onto his cabinet making them pray together regularly. The one that put me over the top was a scene that had Bush sitting at a table surrounded by his cabinet and the famous, “can’t get fooled no more” line was spoken. We’ve all scene this clip on youtube: Can’t Get Fooled No More, so what is Oliver North doing using it out of context? As much as the president was heckled and ridiculed over that, don’t you think he should have portrayed it correctly since many Americans are familiar with that mess up? If that was taken out of context, how much more was taken out of context? How much of this movie are we supposed to give credence to? The answer that it’s art and not science isn’t the answer I’m looking for to any of these questions.
In summary, this movie is a big piece of shit. It’s up there with the talented Mr. Ripley. I was a big fan of Born On The Fourth of July, The Doors, Any Given Sunday, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Wall Street, Platoon, and several other good films. There’s no doubt he’s a talented director. In this case though, with W., he lost some of his creditability and exposed himself as a democratic operative. The quality of this film and the push to make that date of release two weeks before a presidential election leaves a lot of dots to be connected. Don’t waste your time with this one unless you need a sleep aid.
Tags: biographical film, Josh Brolin, Oliver Stone, presidential election
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June 16th, 2009
Movies for Children have come a long way. I thought Toy Story was cool, but Monsters vs. Aliens takes it to a new level with a very cool 3-D film. The animation is phenomenal, especially the outer space scenes at the beginning, showing rings around the planets. The theater experience was definitely worth the additional price for admission that you don’t get with other movies.
I don’t really have many comments on the plot line because this isn’t that kind of movie. If you want plot line, you need to go see something else. This movie is geared toward children with some comedy for the adults so everyone wins, but it’s obviously not a psychological thriller or anything. It’s a basic movie with a little tragedy on a an important day where the main character comes to her senses that the selfish guy she was about to marry for eternity was only looking out for himself. The main character turns into a freakishly tall human and she learns the value of true friendship, which happen to be her fellow monsters from monster prison, and does a selfless act to save the world after embracing her new mutation and monster name of Gigantica.
It’s a really cool movie and highly recommended. You’re going to love this move with it’s cast of talent including Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherland, Seth Rogan, Stephen Colbert, and many other familiar voices. I also liked the previews for other 3-D movies coming out soon. It looks like some good one’s are on the horizon including one where hamburger’s fall out of the sky and another when an old man and a kid fly away in a house full of balloons.
* one quick note, the 3-D glasses in the theater may be too big for children. Just something to watch for. If you watch it in the theater without the glasses, the movie will look fuzzy.
Tags: aliens, cartoon, childrens movie, ginormica, keifer sutherland, monsters, reese witherspoon, seth rogan
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June 6th, 2009
I love this movie. I caught it on cable the other day and I had to write something about it. It’s just a great flick. If you’ve never seen it, it’s about three childhood friends that are reflecting on their life on one’s wedding day, where he got drunk and had a second thought. That might not sound like a spectacular plot, but the way the story weaves in and out of present day and their childhood as non-gang banging high-schoolers, is pretty good.
The movie stars Omar Epps, Richard T. Jones, and Taye Diggs as the adult versions of the three main characters while Sean Nelson, Duane Finley and Trent Cameron as the young versions of Mike, Slim, and Rowland, three young guys that grew up in Inglewood, California. Not only is this a fun story about juvenile friendship but there is also a good “first love” story subplot between Mike and Alicia, which you have to see to appreciate. Take my word for it, don’t pass this movie up next time you see its going to be on. It has a lot of good laughs that you’ll be able to relate to.
Tags: first love, friendship, growing up, inglewood, juvinile friendships, love story, Omar Epps, puberty, Richard T. Jones, Taye Diggs
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May 26th, 2009
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a funny movie that every stoner is going to love. It’s another classic from this crew (Jay & Silent Bob, Seth Rogan, etc) with the same old shtick, maybe a little more than used to, that will make you love. It’s 200 times better than Pineapple Express and on the level with Superbad. The interesting thing about this movie, which is a story about two long time friends that are extremely close and down on their financial luck, is what a good love story it is. Zack and Miri know everything about each other and encourage each other to enjoy life and get laid by whoever they want, whenever they can, etc. Well…while sitting in the darkness of their waterless/utility less apartment, they decide to make a porno and sell it to at least 800 alumni members from their high school graduating class they are positive would buy it just to see two members of their graduating class in a porno.
Through out the porno planning phase, which includes scripting and casting, the both Zack and Miri promise over and over again that it’ll just be sex and swear their relationship won’t be affected. This is a little foreshadowing. You will easily see where this movie is going. The plot line, the friends fall in love thing, has been used in multiple movies before this one which is no different from any of the others. I write that not as a spoiler, but as basic commentary. Any of Silent Bob or Seth Rogan’s fans that are seeing this movie are not watching it for the plot line. Fans are watching it for the movie formula common to all Rogan’s movies and the comedy extremes that come with it.
This movie is recommended mostly because of it’s comedy value but also because you will actually see the love between Zack and Miri when it happens and you’ll be reminded of the worse thing you ever did when in the past, you crossed that friendship line with a special friend of the opposite sex and things were never the same again. Both Zack and Miri play the parts well and if you’ve ever experienced this scenario, you will definitely identify.
Tags: Comedy, funny, movie review, seth rogan
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May 16th, 2009
There was lots of buzz about this movie. It was billed as “vintage Eastwood…” I don’t know if agreed. There were some good cliche’s and some new lines that may one day become “classics”, but to me, this movie was mostly about an old racist white guy, played by Clint Eastwood, who was a Korean War veteran, whose neighborhood was slowly going down the tube because of all the minorities that were taking over. While his preconceived notions about Asians makes him uncomfortable, ultimately, Clint Eastwood’s character, that is a recent widower, becomes friends with the young Asian children that move in next door.
The young Asian children next door have a cousin that runs with an Asian gang that are trying to get the boy to join. After a serious of event, that Asian culture prevents family members from ratting on family members, the vintage Eastwood talked about in the advertising comes out and saves the day. What started out as a story of a lonely, aging senior citizen that has nothing in common with his kids, turns into a feel good movie about interracial friendships where doing what is right has nothing to do with race. There is heavy use of anti Asian terms throughout the entire movie, even directly to Eastwood’s newly found young Asian friend’s faces.
I was shocked by the ending which really caught me by surprise. This movie gets a strong recommendation for many reasons including a good story, a good portrayal of what an aging senior citizen that has outlived all his friends might live like, and a strong positive message.
Tags: clint eastwood, gran torino, movie review, postive message
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May 6th, 2009
This was an interesting flick. I tuned in to see Luke Wilson but wasn’t too sure about what the rest of the movie was about. The advertising for this movie depicted a somber, depressed, simple man finding happiness with a blond lady that he asked to go for a walk. That’s all I remember from the advertising. What you get in this movie is kind of a spoof on the crazy lady that found Jesus Christ on her grill cheese sandwich and sold it to GoldenPalace.com.
In Henry Poole is Here, Luke Wilson goes back to his old neighborhood and tries to buy the house he lived in when he was younger. When the Realtor tells him the family living there doesn’t want to sell, he settles for another one down the street. The Realtor says the stucco needs work and Henry says leave it alone but the Realtor doesn’t listen. The stucco is redone, (when I couldn’t tell you, because apparently Henry doesn’t work and only goes to the store to buy beer and pizza) and leaves a stain on the wall. A nosy neighbor lady sees the face of God in the stain and calls her Priest, played by George Lopez. From here forward, it turns into a religious movie about faith.
The neighbor lady has her reasons for believing and starts to get others over to Henry’s house to experience the miracle. Two miracles happen that strengthen the believe the stain is actually God but you have to see the movie to see what they are. Henry is burdened by this activity and protests everyone coming on his property. He has his reason for not believing when everyone else does.
In the end, it’s a feel good movie about faith and hope. There’s a few touching parts if you’re looking for your emotional fix and some there’s some twisted writing that will make you laugh. Overall, it’s a decent movie with the exception that it’s slower than I prefer and the ending is fairly predictable. I would probably watch this again if I came across it.
Tags: Henry Poole is here, Luke Wilson, movie review
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April 26th, 2009
This movie got me thinking…not about relationships like it’s intended to do, but about older generations. I couldn’t help sitting in the movie theatre, thinking about what my parents and grandparents went through as the Clark Gables and Jimmy Stewarts of their generations started getting phased out. Simply put, who the hell are the actors in this movie? Let me clarify…obviously I know who Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, and Ben Affleck are but they only had bit roles. The main star was Ginnifer Goodwin and I’ve never seen her in anything. Her IMDB.com credits include Walk The Line, Big Love, Robot Chicken, and more. There’s Justin Long who has several movies to his credit including Dodge Ball with Vince Vaughn and also has 1 movie currently in pre-production and 7 in post-production according to IMDB.com.
There are several other actors in this movie that I recognized from a few other movies like Bradley Cooper and Kevin Connolly but for the first time, I was kind of wondering where did all these new faces come from? I had to wonder how older generations felt when they went to the movie theater one day and didn’t know any of the cast. It was just a quick trip of the brain. So on to the movie review…
This was a pretty pathetic movie. I wanted to see it because I like Jennifer Aniston and I wanted to see Ben Affleck was doing after his 3 year hiatus from movies where he’s been playing poker and campaigning for Democrats. Going into the movie, I was a little reserved about Jen and Ben as an on screen couple because I don’t see it, but it worked out. In fact, to be honest with you…the relationship between Jen and Ben and the emotional roller coaster they’re on, is probably the only value this movie has. It’s a very touching plot-line that just makes you feel good for both of them at the end of the movie.
As for the other plot-lines, with which I should probably start out with to give some direction here, are pretty weird…in a round about way, all the main characters are related basically through 6 degrees of separation. A coworker sets her friend up with her Realtor who’s hung up on another chick that meets a guy in line at a liquor store whose married to the original coworker. Coincidentally, the coworker and friend from previous sentence work with Jennifer Aniston’s character who is dating Ben Afflecks character, that is at the liquor store with the guy that the girl the Realtor is hung up on meets. It’s like all too coincidental for even Hollywood and yet, other characters are still introduced such as those of Drew Barrymore and Justin Long.
I don’t want to be a hater and bad mouth this flick 100%, but that would be kind of hard not to other than the Jen and Ben relationship that was previously mentioned. I guess I could say it was nice to see Kris Kristofferson in a movie, which I haven’t seen in a while but that’s about it. It’s really hard to get into a movie with so many flaws in the writing. One in particular is the lengthy monologue by Drew Barrymore that was shown over and over again in advertising previews where she goes on and on about getting “texted to her cell phone to check her email that says go to her myspace page that says there’s a voice mail for her…” and blah blah blah. It was a pretty exhausting movie. One additional issue I had with this movie was how Justin Long’s character knew EVERYTHING about women and pick up lines. He’s way to young in this movie to be that experienced as well as Ginnifer Goodwin’s character being so naive. It was just a train wreck of a movie.
I could imagine one being skeptical about seeing this movie after reading my commentary, but…I still think you should give it a chance partly because there’s issue with smoking (as a metaphor – the Home Depot scene) that everyone in a relationship can identify with, but most importantly, because of the storyline between Jennifer Anniston and Ben Affleck. Other than that, the rest of the movie is pretty “Bo Bo” -at least that’s my opinion.
Tags: Ben Affleck, dating movie, emotional movie, IMDB, Jennifer Aniston, love story, Relationships
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April 16th, 2009
I was duped into seeing this movie by great advertising and a great cast. When I saw the trailers for this movie, I knew I’d be seeing it at my first opportunity. I’m a crazy animal lover and I have a black lab that is a big part of my life so any movie about dogs is going to get my attention. Throw Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson (in spite of his suicidal tendencies) into the mix and I’m a front row guy. This movie starts out developing the characters and their relationships. Both Jennifer and Owen play newspaper reporters with ambitious goals and busy lives. When the two can’t have a baby, Owen get’s her a puppy as a surprise. As a surprise to them both, this yellow lab, named Marley after reggae sensation Bob Marley, is more than they can handle.
Over the course of the movie, you see bits and pieces of your life in the movie as the couple raises this insane dog that eats everything in the house and destroys anything he touches, while the couple endurs hardships of their own. The hardships are typical of everyone’s life including relationship problems, starting a family, envy of co-workers taking steps in their professional career that you can’t, and many more. Just like in most lives, when all the walls are closing in on you at once, there seems to be a tendency to lash out at the dog, and that’s what happens over and over again. With the burden of Marley in their life, the couple go through a constant “he’s gotta go, he can stay, look what he did now” kind of scenarios. Essentially, using the dog as a scapegoat till the dog’s life is threatened and that’s where details about this movie stop because I don’t want to take anything else away from this wonderfully heart warming movie.
Just be prepared for the hard part, or should I say the deeply touching emotional part, of this movie. It will comes with such a gut wrenching blow to your tear ducts that I’d recommend reconsidering who you see this movie with. I hate to sound like a pansy, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the theater. It was crazy. I had to sit in the parking lot and get a grip on my emotions before I could drive home. The monologue Owen Wilson gives to the Veterinarian at the end of the movie is heart felt and very moving and then what Owen and Jennifer do with her necklace is another touching moment. It’s a great movie and is highly recommended.
Tags: dog lovers, emotional, Jennifer Aniston, Marley and Me, movie review, Owen Wilson, tear jerker, touching
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April 6th, 2009
I have attempted to watch the movie Click several times over the last few years but have never gotten completely through it until a few nights ago. What a sad ass movie. The ending was just terrible. It’s a great movie with a touching message. Adam Sandler plays a highly motivated professional that keeps telling his wife and kids that his career needs to come first for just a short period of time and then once he’s at the top of the mountain, he’ll have nothing to do but spend time with them. After complaining about not having enough time on his hands, some how, the Angel of Death, played by Christopher Walken, working at Bed Bath & Beyond gives him a remote control that he can use to fast forward through boring events and assist him with his time management issues. The one flaw with the remote is that it is a “smart” remote, meaning that it remembers your preferences for certain events and begins to take control when those events happen. In the end, Adams Sandler’s character climbs the mountain top to find himself alone and distant from his family, his parents included.
There’s lots of funny shtick, in line with that of other Sandler movies. The addition of David Hasselhoff and several other well known actors/actresses adds great synergy to this emotional roller coaster that is very worthy of your time. Give it a watch next time you come across it.
Tags: Adams Sandler, Christopher Walken, Comedy, emotional, family first, movie, workaholic
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February 26th, 2009
Pineapple Express looks like a real funny movie in the trailer. It’s been around for a while and I finally saw it last night. The quick and skinny of the plot is a dope smokin’ process server, played by Seth Rogan, witnesses a murder. When he sees the murder happen, he throws a joint out the window and makes a big commotion, hitting two cars, as he tries to get away. The murderer comes out of the house, picks up the still burning roach, takes a hit, and recognizes the weed as Pineapple Express, which has only been given to one drug deal in the whole town. The movie is non-stop from there forward. There are a lot of funny little bits that will make you laugh, especially if you’re a former or current stoner but there’s some stuff that makes you think what the hell am I watching? It’s not Half-baked or even Superbad, if you liked those two movies. The jury may still be out on this one. I’m glad I saw it and it was only an hour and a half of my time, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see it again. Seth Rogan has a lot of funny stuff out there but in my opinion, Pineapple Express is not near his best work.
Tags: movie review, pineapple express, seth rogan, stoner movie
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