Featured Review: OCTOBER I

Continuing the trend of short reviews, I had free time on Friday & Saturday to see 7 films (4 on Friday for a grand total of $5, 3 on Saturday for $5, equaling 7 films for $10). Also added Choke from a random Tuesday night screening after class.

Appaloosa - Starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger
Harris starred, directed, co-wrote and co-produced this lumbering western that re-teams him with his A History Of Violence co-star Mortensen. The performances are all solid and edgy, menacing in their surroundings (though Jeremy Irons' character voice is remarkably similar to that of Daniel Plainview), but Appaloosa slowly builds and builds to a climax that never really comes. Pretty to look at, not very interesting to watch.
Grade: C (10/4/08)

Beverly Hills Chihuahua - Starring Piper Perabo, Jamie Lee Curtis, Drew Barrymore
The premise and the marketing for this film is outlandishly and garishly stupid by all means, but Chihuahua IS a Disney movie. Given the chance, Chihuahua isn't half bad, and actually spreads a positive moral message to its key demographic of little kids. Director Raja Gosnell (Scooby Doo) refrains from taking the film's annoying qualities to an absolute hilt. Sort of like this generation's Homeward Bound, except for slightly less intelligent and focused kids. AKA, perfect for the YouTube generation.
Grade: C (10/3/08)

Blindness - Starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael Garcia Bernal
Blindness, Fernando Meirelles' much anticipated follow-up to Cidade de Deus and The Constant Gardner, is extremely ambitious visually, ironic for such a story about quarantined blind people. It has Children Of Men and I Am Legend vibes, inserting a we-take-our-lives-for-granted rhetoric in the midst of an almost apocalyptic disaster quality film. In the end Blindness fails to see a grander picture of allegorical democracy, but is interesting enough for an artsy two hour commentary on the beauty of vision.
Grade: B (10/4/08)

Choke - Starring Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdonald
Anjelica Huston gives a knockout performance, as does Rockwell as always, but it's hard to take their merits seriously in such a bizarre story of bizarre characters. Sort of true to Chuck Palahiuk's book, everything is disjointed until the very end, but it takes a lot of investment to understand any of the character's motives beyond the simple premises. Entertaining, but strange and hard to warm up to.
Grade: B- (9/30/08)

Fireproof - Starring Kirk Cameron, Erin Bethea, Ken Bevel
It's a simple matter of personal faith; if you're a die-hard Christian, you'll probably love Fireproof. If you're an atheist, agnostic or someone who couldn't give a crap about Kirk Cameron, Fireproof will make you burn with hate. Yes, the acting is kind of cheesy at points, and it is more or less shot like a Lifetime movie. But for a film that was made on half a million dollars and starring Cameron and a bunch of Georgia church volunteers, it's surprisingly durable.
Grade: B (10/3/08)

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People - Starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Megan Fox
Whereas Pegg's "Brit conquering the States" contemporary Ricky Gervais found himself working seamlessly in the mainstream Ghost Town, Pegg has yet to break out of the sheer brilliance of Shaun Of The Dead. How To Lose Friends is full of pompous revelation and cliche hyperbole. It gets tolerable in the second half, but save the pig and chihuahuas for a family comedy. Fox is spot-on as an airhead actress, but she's still only used for her body here.
Grade: C- (10/3/08)

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Starring Michael Cera, Kat Dennings, Alexis Dziena
With its cooler-than-thou New York suburbanites crawling the city spouting lyrics and gusto within every square inch of prime hipster real estate, Nick & Norah should be a casualty of the MTV generation lambasting the indie generation. But the film features a charming cast of up-and-comers who fit into their roles like beautiful stereotypes, and we're left with a pocketful of music rebellion nostalgia that hasn't really been seen since the 1980s.
Grade: B- (10/3/08)

Righteous Kill - Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, John Leguizamo
On the bright side, director Jon Avnet improves on his technique over 88 Minutes. While De Niro and Pacino are nowhere near the brilliance their careers were 20-30 years ago, they don't embarrass themselves too badly here. The big hitch however is the fact that the "grand twist" is obvious to anyone who's ever seen a NYPD noir 20 minutes into the movie, and thus we're forced to watch this tepid cat and mouse game go on for another hour before anything gets resolved.
Grade: D+ (10/4/08)

Featured Review: SEPTEMBER

So I've been incredibly busy lately with college, relationships and a new job, so for now I'm just going to post short reviews of the films I've seen this September, and at worst post every 2 weeks or so the new things that come up. Still planning to do a major awards ceremony this winter.

Bangkok Dangerous- Starring Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit, Yamnarm, Charlie Young
Laughably bad and exceedingly boring, Bangkok Dangerous plays like Nic Cage's steely Asian action version of An American In Paris. He fights some bad guys, trains his Thai courier boy the ways of the American dojo, and falls in love with a deaf mute pharmacy clerk. And the hair, oh Lord child, the hair. Cage's pantomime skills are classic.
Grade: D (9/5/08)

Burn After Reading - Starring George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt
Though not nearly as funny or heartwarming as some of the Coens' best parables, Burn After Reading doesn't necessarily let it's big name actors get in the way of an interesting and well-made, if ultimately pointless film. The main stars range from excellent (Pitt is a considerable Supporting Actor nomination) to weary (John Malkovich is a great actor, but kind of slows down the film here).
Grade: B+ (9/13/08)

College - Starring Drake Bell, Kevin Covais, Andrew Caldwell
It's pretty sad when a film titled College is still more infinitely forgettable than a simple T-shirt with the word on it. Though it has some genuinely funny laughs occasionally, the movie suffers from a slew of perplexing decisions going against it. Targeting high schoolers and Drake Bell fans with an R-rating? Making all your characters except Covais truly detestable? This ain't your older brother's Superbad.
Grade: D+ (9/5/08)

Eagle Eye - Starring Shia LeBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton
Eagle Eye is sort of a coming out party for director D.J. Caruso to be the next Michael Bay. Vastly entertaining yet insufferably over-the-top and cliche, Eagle Eye curbs itself from a host of movies, including Enemy Of The State, I Robot and without spoiling TOO much, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sure, it has a cheeky sense of humor and never truly takes itself completely seriously, but even if it was thrilling enough to finish the popcorn bag, you find yourself asking WHY?
Grade: C+ (9/27/08)

Fool's Gold* - Starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland
Despite the easy affability, chemistry and charm of the leading actors- a pair that should be together in real life- Fool's Gold sinks to the bottom of the filmmaking depths with shallow caricatures and some jarring violence for such a breezy and hollow effort. It's like an exotic vacation that you spent the entire time in the lavatory for.
Grade: D+

Ghost Town - Starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni
It takes a lot of gall to appreciate Gervais' awkward and dread based sitcom comedies (including the brilliant, original UK version of The Office), but surprisingly Gervais is easily accessible here. He alone turns what would normally be a middling romantic comedy of the updated Topper variety into a charming spectacle with a little bit of off-color bite. Ghost Town is the kind of film that one shouldn't necessarily be excited to see, but is proof that there is fresh life in the romantic comedy genre. Surprising little gem of a movie.
Grade: B+ (9/25/08)

Man On Wire - Starring Philippe Petit, Annie Allix, Jean-Louis Blondeau
Usually when one thinks of a documentary, they think of a subject that is either made to change a point of view, or to enlighten. Certainly Man On Wire enlightens, but for a subject so seemingly inconsequential in the grand scope of the world- a man tightrope walking across the World Trade Center almost 35 years ago- it is highly entertaining. Blending a unique spin of straight documentary and heist film, director James Marsh doesn't mince on 9/11 despite an easy target to do so, and thus the absence of the subject makes the legacy of the WTC that much more bittersweet.
Grade: A- (9/16/08)

Miracle At St. Anna - Starring Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso
For every ingenious thing Spike Lee crafts within this quasi-true story of black soldiers holed up in Italy during WWII, Lee seems to make 1 1/2 times more mistakes with the storyline. While his "struggling race in the face of white supremacy" slant has been toned down over the years, Lee still manages to make a couple of toothless jabs at the subject. An interesting tale with a couple of stellar performances (Omar Benson Miller in particular is sweet natured), Miracle At St. Anna ends up disappointing in the long run.
Grade: B- (9/26/08)