Posts Tagged ‘DVD’

April21

Wedding Date (PG-13)

By: Dan

Don’t see this movie.

Plain and simple.

There isn’t another way to review this movie other than to say, don’t go see it. I really want to be more positive and search throughout the entire film for some saving grace, but honestly folks, I wasted an hour and a half of my life sitting through this movie.

Debra Messing is awkward on screen, her dialogue never seems to connect with the audience, her chemistry with walking robot Dermot Mulroney is about as passionate as a wooden chair, the way she drudges along hopelessly playing the victimized older sibling never suits her well…she just needs to stick with playing a gay man’s roommate. I first thought this was an older movie, probably made around the time Will & Grace was taking off figuring the execs would try and cash in on her sitcom-star status and see if she would resonate on screen, but to my dismay, this was made only 3 years ago! The scenery, the jokes, the actors, all of it just seemed to be trapped in the late 90′s in its function and workability.

My wife and I put this movie on our Netflix queue after reading about it, remembering how funny Debra Messing was in Will & Grace and hoping that with a male counterpart that was heterosexual, she would really drive the movie and the story…nope! I can’t say I had a lot of expectations for the movie, but I at least expected to be, at the least, entertained, and that didn’t even happen.

Folks, just pass on by this movie. You won’t be happy, you won’t feel romantic, and you won’t laugh, you’ll just leave the movie wishing you had that hour and a half back.

Content Warning: Rated PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue. This movie should have been rated R. It had some surprisingly sexual scenes, 1 being a mild sex scene that resulted in me having to avert my eyes for a bit. Stay away!

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April16

Enchanted (PG)

By: Dan

Here is a movie that when I first saw the trailer for it, I was immediately on-board with due to the opportunities for greatness that I could see for Disney if they crafted the movie the right way….

…but, I was greatly disappointed. Disney could have made such a MUCH BETTER film if they would have actually stopped and thought about the possibilities of making fun of themselves in their own movie. I mean, think about it, you start out with a complete cliche cartoon of a movie, totally riding on the coat tails of every other Disney cartoon that has been made, and then you take that naive and vulnerable cartoon character and stick them right in the middle of real-life New York city and watch them learn how to be a human….that is revolutionary!

Yet, what did Disney do? They tried to achieve that level of greatness through cliche situations, chemistry-less romantic story lines that ended formulaic, characters that rarely showed any signs of real growth, and all of that combined with a cast that really left a lot to the imagination in terms of believability. There was just so much left on the cutting room floor, maybe even the pre-production floor, in terms of story and pace and character development that I was left with an abundance of over-flattery and fluff.

Though I was not impressed by the movie and at best, it was “cute” in its most basic form, one of the highlights was the acting of James Marsden as “Prince Edwards.” I really thought he did a decent job of “over-acting” his part as the chivalry inspired “good guy” in this film and if I laughed at all, it was from his performance. He seemed to have that tongue-in-cheek personality down very well and actually succeeded in providing me with mild humor.

In the end, it was another Disney let down that could have been so great…which I think a lot of modern-day-Disney movies have become lately. Movies that are hyped to be something out of the ordinary, something innovative, yet always fail and ultimately default to cheap humor and washed up and overplayed situation.

Content Warning: Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo. It’s Disney, so it’s pretty clean.

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April8

Road to Perdition (R)

By: Dan

I love mobster movies. I really do. There’s something so mysterious and untouchable and frightening about mobs and all that goes on in that world. I realize it’s very odd to hear me say that I like mobs and such, but there’s something so sinister about them and I long to see it in their eyes, to see that the pain they are causing affects them, or to catch a glimpse of mercy in their expression-less eyes. It’s that eternal chase for a sense of decency in them that drives me to want to continue to watch mob movies.

Road to Perdition isn’t your typical mob movie…well, it is, in that the mob are the central characters in the movie and they kill people, but that isn’t ALL this movie has to offer. What you will get from Road to Perdition is a heartbreaking story about a man who has to reconcile working for the mob while being a husband and raising 2 sons. This tension drives the movie all the way through and ultimately provides the backdrop for one of the most heart wrenching stories about a father and his son. There are a lot of movies historically that are about the father and son relationship and they are some of my most favorite movies. There’s just something about watching a father and son interact with each other on the screen through very crazy and difficult circumstances, circumstances that I’ll probably never go through with my Dad in reality, but underlying all of the fantastical situations, it’s essentially about a son wanting to be loved by his dad who, because of his choices in career and not having a dad himself, has to rationalize how to love his son amidst turmoil.

In this movie, Sam Mendes (the director) really goes to great lengths to expose the inner workings of a father-son relationship. At first, I didn’t really buy into the chemistry between Tom Hanks and his son’s, it just looked very cold and forced. And after watching the entire movie all the way through, I realized what a stroke of brilliance it was by Mendes to portray the earlier stages of Hanks’ relationships with his sons in that way, because it really amplified how the relationships took form later on. What took shape, though, was a very progressive and no-frills connection between Hanks and his oldest son Mike Jr., played quite averagely by young star Tyler Hoechlin. The love that they had was very much built upon the intense situations, but later was beautifully founded in how much they cared and looked out for each other. One of the more poignant scenes in the movie involved Mike Jr. feeding his wounded Dad, Hanks, and essentially taking care of him in a way he has never done before.

As I sat watching this movie, I found myself hoping that something BIG would happen that would just send me over the edge in how I felt about this movie…and when it came, I wasn’t totally surprised nor did I find myself reeled by it. This movie had some wonderful performances from Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, and Jude Law, and I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to watch a movie with mob violence and intense action that can touch you on a real personal level. Dad’s, you NEED to watch this movie…SONS, you ALSO need to watch this movie.

This movie is rated R for violence and language. There is a lot of mob violence and language you would associate with a mobster movie.

For Discussion: What other movies do you like that portray the father-son relationship?

Posted in: Reviews6 comments

March13

The Science of Sleep (R)

By: Dan

From the department of “Weird-Indie-Arty-Movies” comes one of the most gorgeous, outlandish, grand, incredible, absurd, dreamy, and remarkable films I’ve ever seen. I do admit that I love blockbuster movies for the most part, I just love the grand scale, the huge explosions, the immense build up to the movie, the impossible computer graphics, the big name stars…but it’s movies like this one that really show me how much the BLOCKBUSTER movies lack in terms of story, emotion, realism, and true depth. There’s so much depth to the characters that Michel Gondry has created, and it’s not prefabricated or over acted depth, it’s just real.

I’ve never seen Gael Garcia Bernal in a movie before and after watching this one, I leaned over to my wife and said, “I want to see more of what he’s done.” His performance as Stephane was filled with so much raw emotion, giving a strong emotional core to the film. Without his powerful and nuanced performance, the spectacle of the film would have been too much; however, Bernal keeps it grounded in reality with a character so truthful that the insanity happening around him seems completely believable. His life becomes so boring and mundane to him that he prefers to live in his dreams and throughout the movie, his dreams actually start creeping into his waking life.

There are some real neat child-like moments with Bernal and his love interest Stephanie, played masterfully by Charlotte Gainsbourg, that include imagining water as cellophane, playing with Bernal’s one second time machine, and looking through his 3-D glasses. (“Isn’t real life already in 3D?” asks Stephanie at one point) At times I felt sorry for him because I felt like he was a grown up who was trapped in his fantasy of wanting to be a boy again. The most awkward of the scenes were the ones that involved him trying to be flirtatious or charming with Stephanie. You remember in middle school how awkward it was to try and talk to girls you liked? Well, that’s how it felt to watch Stephane work his magic. Yet, it was his indomitable creative spirit that he found mirrored in the equally creative, yet more realistically centered Stephanie.

Contrast to his rough and dissatisfying real world is Stephane’s dream world. It is outlandish, beautiful, and unrestrained. It is in these sequences when Gondry really shows what he’s about. They are filled with so much eye candy it is difficult to take in at times. They range from the absurd (a spider typewriter), to the grand (an entire cardboard city), or to the beautiful (a cloth horseback ride to a boat on a sea of cellophane). What makes the scenes all the more incredible is that, for the most part, Gondry relies only on practical effects. There’s something so refreshingly classic to utilizing stop-motion camera work and actual physical props. It definitely adds that nostalgic touch to the film.

Though not expected but very much welcomed, the film was also filled with some great transcendent humor through the characters’ dialogue. By using truth instead of punch lines to provide the humor, Gondry adds another layer to his already versatile film. The dialogue is in French, English, and Spanish, each seamlessly interweaving with each other, much like the realities of the film interweave. There comes a point in the film where you stop realizing the language of the film is constantly changing. As the film progresses, you forget that at times, it’s either in French, Spanish, or English, it just all flows together as an organic, wonderful dialogue.

This is a film that will amaze you with its visual canvas, and touch you with its powerful emotion. Michel Gondry has created a film that even through the unbelievable situations and perspectives, has so many delicately-crafted human moments. Deep down, this film is a love story. Going back to the title sequence’s spin art, below all of layers being spun and pushed around run currents of human emotion which Gondry smartly anchors the film with; therefore, allowing it to soar.

Content Warning: This movie is rated R for language, some sexual content and nudity. This is not a film for the little ones. Though I am not an advocate of watching rated R movies because of the liberty the studios feel they have to add outrageous content, this one isn’t a STRONG R, but it’s a R nonetheless. There are 2 scenes where my wife and I had to avert our eyes because of female AND male nudity. Be cautious. But, the sexual content does not ruin the film. Just be warned.

Posted in: Reviews7 comments

March5

Les Miserables (PG-13)

By: Dan

Liam Neeson isn’t one of those actors that I have consistently liked and/or followed in the cinemas. He’s normally a supporting actor in most movies so his presence isn’t what drives the story.

Les Miserables is by far the BEST movie I have seen him in. This movie was breathtaking! And when I say breathtaking, I don’t mean visually like the landscape or cinematography blew me away, when I say breathtaking, I mean this movie literally was slowly robbing me of my breath as each scene unfolded.

From the beginning, you are taken on a journey with Liam as he goes from rugged and bitter convict to a man who understands what Redemption means in his life. He’s a man who has been given a second chance and with that second chance he chooses to be a man of justice, mercy, understanding, and most of all, forgiveness. I really felt the inner-struggle he was having between the man he was and the man he is trying to be through his wonderful performance.

The film’s theme speaks very timelessly to all generations about redemption, forgiveness, grace, righting the wrongs you’ve done in your life with an abundance of mercy and compassion to other people, etc. The redemptive theme throughout this movie is what I really came away with loving about it. There’s something about watching a story unfold about a man whose past could likely destroy him and ultimately create destruction around him, yet decides to take his past and learn from it and pursue being a better man.

Another stand out performance in this movie came from Geoffrey Rush. Over the past 5 years or so I’ve become accustomed to seeing him as Captain Barbosa in Pirates of the Caribbean and have absolutely loved him in that role. Before this movie, I don’t think I’ve seen him in many movies when he was in his younger days. After watching his performance in this movie, I feel like I need to go back and watch all of the movies he has done. He plays a hell-bent, rule-abiding, strict-as-nails inspector who was one of the prison guards who watched over Liam when he was a convict. He plays this bitter inspector who doesn’t believe in any gray areas, to quote him, “There are 2 kinds of people: those who follow the law and those that break the law.” To him, you were either born as law breaker or born as a law abider.

I loved seeing the explosive chemistry between Liam and Geoffrey. Throughout the entire movie, you knew that it was all building up to some big moment involving them both, where they would have to face the reality of who they had become. And in the end, I was totally surprised!

Content Warning: This movie is rated PG-13 for violence, and for some sexual content. The violence is mainly during the French Revolution scenes and the sexual content involves Uma Thurman as a prostitute. She’s gets kind of beaten up and in the process her dress slips a little in the front and her chest is exposed some. It’s not too intense, but if a young one is watching, you might want them to shy away from that scene.

Posted in: Reviews8 comments

February28

Hairspray (PG)

By: Dan

When this movie came out, I never wanted to see it. It never looked like a movie I would waste any money or even time on. Musicals are already not my ultimate cup-of-tea, and especially not one as cheesy and bubbly as this one. I am not a huge fan of Grease, I mean, I know it’s kind of a musical icon and the songs are played in every high school dance team’s routine, so when I heard about this movie, I wasn’t thrilled…

…my expectations were RIGHT ON! This movie was cheese to the max! From the very start of the movie as the main character, played very averagely by newcomer Nikki Blonsky, is walking or running or skipping (I’m still not sure which mode she used) to school, she breaks out into song the entire way to the bus stop (which she of course misses due to her incessant singing). Who sings while going to school? Most teenagers I know are sleeping on their way to school. The one positive note from the first scene is that the song is sung very well by Nikki and the harmonies are catchy and poppy and in fact, though sad to say, I found myself singing “Good Morning Baltimore” at work on Monday morning.

It’s not a movie I am going to remember or even want to see again. Throughout the entire movie, I could not get over the fact that John Travolta was playing a woman in a fat-suit the whole time. That thought creeped me out every time I would hear him/her (argghh) speak, which by the way, was a very odd Baltimore accent. It sounded almost like Lily Tomlin channeling Ed Sullivan through very restrictive prosthetics. If that character didn’t exist, I might have liked the movie more. Why?! Just find a plus-sized lady to fulfill that role, why do you have to use a man in a woman suit??

I think the cynic inside of me is fighting to write a scathing review of such a mainstream bubble-gum movie-musical and although I wouldn’t ever watch it again, I can’t say I hated every minute of it. The songs are catchy and poppy, the colors are bright and bold, and it is nice to see a “plus-sized” actress get the lead and actually come out the heroine without having to debase herself too much. Overall, I was mildly entertained for a Sunday afternoon movie. It’s not one that I would pay for again, or even brag about seeing, but if my wife wants to watch again with me, I will.

Content Warning: This movie is rated PG for language, some suggestive content and momentary teen smoking. This movie, although bubbly and innocent, has some pretty intense sexual innuendos. The young ones won’t get it and will enjoy the songs and colors, but if you are a teenager, you will definitely understand the sexual undertones. That was a very surprising element to the movie.

Posted in: Reviews5 comments

February18

No Reservations (PG)

By: Dan

    **SPOILER ALERT**

    If you don’t want to know what happens in this movie, then please just read the front page summary. There are plot details revealed in this review.

I love to watch a movie where the child actor steals the movie. It just warms me when a little child (male or female) can deliver a performance that totally outshines their adult counterparts. Those child actors are why I loved Jerry Maguire (Jonathan Lipnicki), Man on Fire and War of the Worlds (Dakota Fanning), and as of late Signs, Little Miss Sunshine and No Reservations (all with Abigail Breslin). There’s just something authentic and innocent about them that really engages me and forces me to follow along the movie to discover how the world around these children changes because of them.

In this movie we find Catherine Zeta-Jones, a high powered chef in an upscale New York restaurant, having to deal with losing her sister in a car accident and becoming a new parent of her niece Zoe, played wonderfully and emotionally by Abigail Breslin. The story is kind of a cookie-cutter pattern to the typical (independent adult who after life altering circumstances has to take care of a kid who eventually softens their heart and shows them the true meaning of closeness) and at times feels like just your average romantic comedy. The romance part comes in when Catherine Zeta-Jones’ boss hires Aaron Eckhart to be the sous-chef, after Catherine is forced to see a therapist and kind of freaks out because of the loss of her sister.

Naturally, Aaron is a polar opposite to Catherine, he’s free and likes opera, he wears 80′s MC Hammer pants when he cooks, sings in the kitchen, all of the things opposite to Catherine who is strict, stern, structured, and works like a machine…classic opposites-attract scenario that you will find in MANY romantic comedies. Again, if that’s all the movie was, I would not have liked it, I would have probably reviewed it like, “It was just eh” but because of Abigail’s performance, I must say that I at least enjoyed HER.

She’s just great! From the moment you meet her on screen, you can just feel like something bad is about to happen. Her odd and quirky little face reveals so much character and personality when she acts. You can really feel her pain when she is lying in the hospital and realizes that her mom has passed away. I didn’t buy into any of the other actors emotions throughout the movie like I did with Abigail. She sold me.

I realize this review is very one-sided and it’s not actually a review of the movie, it’s more of a review of Abigail Breslin. The movie was ok. I never really felt the chemistry between Aaron and Catherine, and I truly didn’t feel, apart from 1 breakdown scene in the freezer at the restaurant, like Catherine mourned that much over her sister. It was a slower progressing romantic comedy than I’m used to, and in the end, I really think it was less about the romance between Aaron and Catherine as it was about the relationship between Abigail and Catherine. Abigail made this movie watchable for me.

I wouldn’t have paid money to see this in the theaters, and it would have garnished a pretty low spot in my Netflix queue. It’s a movie that you watch with family, when a lot of people are around…but don’t miss Abigail’s performance.

Content Warning: This movie is rated PG for some sensuality and language. There’s some intense kissing between Catherine and Aaron, but that’s it. The movie is actually pretty clean and it’s quite surprising that a romantic comedy would actually make it as a PG movie.

Posted in: Reviews1 comments

February11

Mystery Men (PG-13)

By: Dan

I can remember watching Mystery Men in college and spending hours on the floor laughing my guts out…this time around, almost 8 years later, I found myself giggling a few times and for the most part, scratching my head in curiosity as to why I thought this was so funny. I still think it’s one of the most underrated Ben Stiller comedies out there, but still, it didn’t blow me away comedic wise. The characters are probably the funniest part of the movie, with their distinguishable “powers” and individualistic takes on the anti-heroes they were. I really love The Simpsons’ Hank Azaria as The Blue Raja, a mid-30′s-still-living-at-home-with-mom nerd who takes on a British accent and is the master of forks. Genius! Greg Kinnear as Captain Amazing was a great role as well, portraying the over-the-top Superman-ish good guy, yet who was so much into his image that he attained sponsors that he wore like Nascar racers on his costume…brilliant!

If it comes on TV on a Saturday afternoon with nothing else to do, I’d probably watch it again, but it’s not worth the money for a rental, and it may only foster a low spot on your Netflix queue.

Content Warning: It’s a pretty clean movie, PG-13 for comic violence and some crude humor involving flatulence. In today’s standards, that’s a pretty clean movie.

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February10

Across the Universe (PG-13)

By: Dan

When I first saw this trailer, I wasn’t sure I would ever see it. The trailer was very psychedelic, 60′s-ish, and musical and I am not that interested in musicals. Though I must be honest, I did enjoy Rent and The Phantom of the Opera, but I think more than anything, I enjoy the more modern singing styles that both of those movies employed (especially Rent). This movie is very unique in that all of the songs sung or heard throughout the film are all Beatles’ songs. When I first learned of that fact, I admit I was a bit more interested, but then again, I didn’t grow up with the Beatles or with insane Beatles-obsessed parents, so to me they were a very great, but very vintage nostalgic treasure I enjoyed from afar. And, I was DEFINITELY not so much into them that I was going to sit through 2 hours of a movie based solely on their songs…

…I couldn’t have been more wrong in my judgments. The movie totally grabbed me up by my cynical body and shook out all of my preconceived notions. It’s set in the 1960′s, right around and amidst the controversial Vietnam War, where we find this group of young twentysomethings trying to discover who they are, what they are about, and what this world has prepared for them. We begin on a dreary beach in Liverpool with Jude (very Coldplay-esque, see “Yellow”), (most, if not all, of the names of the characters come from Beatles’ songs) who starts us off with his rendition of “Girl” which leads the audience right into the story.

The story, at times confusingly, follows Jude, a young college-age Liverpool boy, who is trying to find his way to the US to meet his real father. Along the way he befriends Max, a rich and spoiled, yet rebellious by nature, Ivy-league student who prefers to defy all authority and parental expectations, while at the same time, trying to suck everything out of life, for free of course. They head to New York to discover themselves, because that’s where you went in the 60′s if you were a twentysomething looking for an identity and/or a cause. Through an odd series of events, they end up living in this loft with a rag-tag bunch of people including, radical peace activists, a Janis Joplin-like singer named Sadie, a “Yoko Ono” character from Ohio who we think is a lesbian named Prudence, a Jimmy Hendrix character named JoJo who plays guitar for the Janis Joplin character, Max’s sister Lucy who is the All-American girl who eventually falls for Jude, and countless other “hippies” who just roam in and out throughout the film who we are to really pay no attention to.

Lining the entire movie like old wallpaper is this very anti-war undertone. I thought, at times, the message was a little too in your face. I was thinking, yeah, I get it, you (the director and makers of the film) don’t like war and are obviously making a statement about the Vietnam War while at the same time commenting on today’s war issues. I understand your feelings and I agree, let me tell you, but I wanted that to be 2nd to the developing characters and their struggle to find what they were supposed to fight for. I thought they did a pretty good job of balancing out the anti-war message with the characters and the story, but at times, it was a little too much.

If you are not at all into the 1960′s, psychedelic, hippy, crazy tie-dye colors, scene, then this movie might not be your cup of tea. Particularly the scene involving Bono, who plays some whacky doctor who leads this crazy tie-dye bus across the country whilst singing and preaching and at times spinning around…and then at some point they are in a field where giant scary Asian rabbits are leading the way to a one-man circus that involves little blue Popsicle people…I just re-read that sentence and even I don’t know what I saw. Basically, it’s a very trippy, crazy, bright, colorful, psychedelic, drug-induced scene that left my wife and I giggling a little bit because we weren’t sure what had just happened. But, hey, we got to see Bono.

Like Rent and Phantom of the Opera, all of the actors in this film sang the songs themselves, which very much impressed me. It really adds that something extra to the scene, knowing they had to really give it everything, not just in acting, but also in song, to nail their character. I love how each character individualized the songs they were required to sing. They really made it their own, yet still keeping and paying homage to the original creators themselves, the Beatles.

Overall, I would very much recommend this movie to rent for a Friday night. It’s not as romantic as I thought it would be, so it’s not really a romance fire starter, but as for music in films, it’s definitely one of my top 3. (I only have 3 at this point, but don’t tell anyone)

Content Warnings: After seeing the initial teaser trailer, I was a bit cautioned as to the amount of “fleshy” material that may be in the film, with it being set in the “free love” era of the 1960′s, but to be honest, save 2 scenes: 1 underwater scene where you do catch a few glimpses of a man’s butt and 1 figure drawing scene where Jude is drawing Lucy while she is sleeping and there is a short stint where her breasts are shown, the movie kept a pretty clean stature. It is rated PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language. I would definitely not let youth under the age of 17 go see this movie, as I think it’s too intense in its imagery and its sexuality. Although there are only 2 scenes with actual nudity, being that it is set in that time period, some of the relationships are definitely sexual and a bit too real for youth.

Posted in: Reviews10 comments

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