Monthly Archives: April 2008

by

2008 Summer movie preview

Well, it’s not even May yet, but in the movie world Summer is upon us. The Summer season — home of the blockbusters, sequels and an occasional original idea (and sometimes a combination of the three) — kicks off this Friday with Iron Man, Jon Favreau’s comic book flick with the wonderfully twisted Robert Downey Jr. in the starring role.

I’m really looking forward to that one — and 17 others. Follow me to the jump to see exactly which ones, in order. Disclaimer: These rankings are subject to change… titles will no doubt fall off this list, and dark horses I’ve left out might emerge.

Continue reading →

by

Cloverfield

Date: April 29, 2008
Location: Clifton Living Room

Cloverfield is the latest film in the genre popularized by The Blair Witch Project — the movie is made up entirely of “found footage” from a camcorder. It’s an interesting idea, and well-executed, though it sometimes strains credibility. Would you really hang on to the camera while being chased by a hundred-foot-tall sea monster? On the other hand, we are talking about a group of 20-something Manhattanites who have grown up in a world of YouTube and vodcasts, so maybe it isn’t much of a stretch.

The film stays true to its conceit… sometimes distractingly so. When the guy with the camera runs (and he runs a lot), we see exactly what you’d expect to see — a lot of bounce, a lot of blur. At times, Cloverfield makes The Bourne Ultimatum look like My Dinner With Andre. What’s new here is the marriage of such a low-tech shooting style with state-of-the-art digital effects. The monster (the existence of which is never explained) looks very real and very scary, as does the destruction it brings to New York City. There’s an underlying whiff of 9/11 about the proceedings, though it is directly referenced only once when a character in the background wonders aloud after the first explosion “Are we being attacked again?”

Mostly, though, this is a big dumb monster movie, and it’s quite enjoyable on that level. The characters are paper-thin, and their central mission (to save a friend stranded in midtown) doesn’t resonate, but so what? Moviegoers remember Godzilla, not the people he stepped on.

by

Lars and the Real Girl

Date: April 23, 2008
Location: Clifton Living Room

“They’re not real, so they’ll last forever.”

That’s what Lars Lindstrom says about a bouquet of fake flowers given to his “girlfriend,” an anatomically correct doll, and it neatly sums up the sad psychology behind his delusion. Afraid of attachment following the death of his mother in childbirth (his own) and a painful childhood the details of which are only hinted at, Lars lives in a bubble of solitude that borders on autism. His brother and sister-in-law try to engage him without much success. Until one day he shows up at their door with Bianca, the lifelike mannequin he’s convinced is a real woman.

Continue reading →

by

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Date: April 19, 2008
Location: AMC Sunset Place

The latest film from Judd Apatow and gang (thought he neither wrote nor directed this one), Forgetting Sarah Marshall has the big laughs and the earnestness of earlier hits such as The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad without ever reaching their heights in terms of overall quality.

Jason Segal, an Apatow staple from Freaks & Geeks on, is the most recent atypical leading man to carry one of these films. There’s a bit of a backlash out there about all these movies featuring slacker schlubs landing such great women but I say to hell with that — it’s nice to see men who are attractive primarily due to their sense of humor win the day for a change. And Segal does a fine job as a heartbroken dumpee who travels to Hawaii to forget the break-up only to run into his ex-girlfriend at the hotel. Kristen Bell doesn’t have much to do other than look cute as the ex, but she’s pretty good at looking cute.

It’s the supporting players who are most memorable, particulary Mila Kunis and Rusell Brand as the other love interests in the leads’ lives. Kunis, whom I know only from a couple seasons of That 70s Show, has grown into a stunningly beautiful actress with a confident, relaxed vibe and nice comic timing. Brand, whom I don’t know at all, steals the show as an alternately oblivious and perceptive British rock star. He delivers some of the movie’s biggest laugh lines. Apatow regulars Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill show up in glorified cameos, and 30 Rock‘s Jack McBrayer has a great turn as an uptight Christian on honeymoon.

A fun night out, but far from a classic… Forgetting Sarah Marshall is the Weird Science to Knocked Up‘s Breakast Club, if you buy into the premise that Judd Apatow is a Gen-X John Hughes.

by

The Mist

Date: April 18, 2008
Location: Clifton Living Room

Ladies and gentlemen, the feel-good movie of the year!

Now I’m not one to get bothered by dark, depressing movies… I’ve enjoyed and appreciated plenty of films with disturbing or “sad” endings. I subscribe to Roger Ebert’s maxim that good movies aren’t depressing (no matter their subject matter) so long as they’re good.

So maybe the problem is that The Mist isn’t a good movie — because, Jesus, is it ever depressing! I’m going to give a massive SPOILER ALERT here and discuss the ending in detail. Nobody who reads this blog has any interest in this movie, I’m guessing, and if you did, you will thank me for revealing the ending and saving you the grief. That said, if you do want to see it for yourself, stop reading now.

OK. So there’s this mist.
Continue reading →