DERAILED
Being the huge Clive Owen fan that I am, I was dying to see this movie in theaters, but since my boyfriend hates Jennifer Anniston, I had to wait for the DVD to be released. Personally, I think he is a bit jealous of my undying love for Clive, but that is another story. Jennifer Anniston and Clive Owen star in this well acted thriller about two professionals who meet on the commuter train in Chicago. Anniston does a great job in breaking out of her “Rachel” role, and the rest of the key players in the movie do a great job with what they had to work with. Unfortunately, the script is a bit cheesy and predictable at times, and the ending (which I will not spoil) leaves a lot of questions to be answered. I will not argue semantics on this one, but a tighter ending, fixing a few dubbing problems, and some attention to detail would have made this film less sophomoric.
THE ARISTOCRATS
There is a joke told only amongst comedians about a man going into an agent’s office. The man says he has a family style act, and then he describes the most obscene thing possible. The agent asks the name of the act, and the man says “The Aristocrats”. Penn & Teller have produced a documentary on this joke, thanks to the wonderful Gilbert Gottfried. There are over a hundred comedians lending their hand to this, and each tell it in their own sick and twisted way. It is great. Everyone that you could imagine is in this film: Drew Carey, Andy Dick, Bob Saget, George Carlin (never thought you would see those two in the same sentence did you?), Hank Azaria, Jason Alexander, Eric Idle, Chris Rock, Robin Williams and more. I highly recommend this film to anyone who has a warped sense of humor.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
You may remember Ziyi Zhang and Michelle Yoeh from CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, and the wonderful job they did in that film. MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA is no exception. Add Ken Watanabe and Gong Li to the mix, and you have a fine plethora of actors. The story is set in 1929 Japan, where an impoverished family sells their nine-year-old daughter Chiyo (Zhang) to a geisha house. There, she is treated cruelly by Hatsumomo (Li) who is jealous of her beauty until she is rescued by Hatsumomo’s rival Mameha (Yoeh), and thrives under her tutorage to become a great geisha. Thrown into a world of high society, things begin to look up for her until World War II changes Japan forever. This is a very good film. Granted, some men may find it a bit boring considering there are many “women issues” involved, and plenty of jealous female intrigue, but all in all this is a beautiful film with high entertainment value, and you may just learn a bit of Japanese culture while you are watching it.
KING KONG
We all know the story of the giant gorilla King Kong who falls in love with a vaudeville actress and meets his doom in New York City due to the greed and inhumanity of a slime ball filmmaker. Since we all know the full story I will not bore you with a rundown. I will however mention that the special effects were awesome, (as only Peter Jackson can do), it is a very LONG movie (3 hours), and it needs serious updating. I know that as a society we have a tendency to anthropomorphize animals and their actions, but in this day and age of vanishing species, cruelty to animals, and disappearing land for the sake of a strip mall or particle board house – would it have been so wrong for Peter Jackson to let King Long live happily ever after like Mighty Joe Young or Curious George? When I saw this in theaters, children were sobbing. Granted, when I saw the 1976 version starring Jessica Lang at the drive-in when I was four years old (telling my age here), I cried as well, but the atmosphere of the times were a bit different. Come on Peter, Jack Black should have been eaten by Raptors, and Adrien Brody and Naomi Watts should have taken Kong back to Skull Island to live out the rest of his days reveling in smashing dinosaurs to pieces. Would that have been so hard?
DREAMER: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY
A thoroughbred trainer (Kurt Russell) and his daughter (Dakota Fanning) bring an injured racehorse back to her full potential to run in the Breeder’s Cup. This is a sweet family movie, which also stars Kris Kristofferson and Elizabeth Shue. The only draw back for younger viewers is the depicted violence where injury is caused to the horse. It looks so realistic, that even I cringed when it happened. Living here in the heart of horse country, and being the proud owner of a couple of thoroughbreds myself, I am a sucker for a horse flick – as long as it has a happy ending (Dances With Wolves SUCKS!). Following in the success of SEABISCUIT this is a great film for all ages.
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Edward R. Murrow is a hero to most journalists and journalism students. He set the precedence on how news was to be reported in the future, and his grilling of Senator McCarthy set the stage for hard-edged political exposes. Filmed in documentary style, the cinematography is phenomenal, and George Clooney does well his second time around as director. The excellent supporting cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Frank Langella, and Jeff Daniels, as well as Clooney himself. David Strathairn, who portrays Murrow, captures every detail down to his facial expressions. What lacks is you never get to know Murrow the man. Sure, you get a sense of his ethics, professionalism, stature, and significance, but emotions never come into play – his personal life is not even a blip on the radar. The only thing that I can conclude from this lukewarm film with a thin script is that it may inspire someone to tell the tale of Murrow in more detail.
CAPOTE
A more depressingly dark and irresistible tease of a film has not come our way in years. Capote tells the story of Truman Capote, the wonder boy who wrote the masterpiece “In Cold Blood”. In the film, Capote becomes overly involved with Perry Smith, a prisoner he meets while researching a story for “The New Yorker”. His involvement with the prisoner conflicts with his need to finish his book with its grand conclusion of an execution – this makes for some dark psychological riffs between the prisoner and the author. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener both give fabulous performances and if Hoffman does not get an Oscar for Best Actor, I will boycott any thing that Ang Lee does in the future, even if Emma Thompson is involved. This film is a total must-see for anyone who likes a slight taste of film noir. It could easily be the best movie I have seen in years. You will not be satisfied with any answers given to you at the film's conclusion – it is like being given a bite of tiramisu and having the plate taken away from you. You are left wanting more, and no matter how disappointing that is, you relish the small taste that you were given
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE is another crap movie that received less than stellar crowds at the theaters because of crappy everything. Based on a graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke, this film tells the story of Tom Stall - a loving family man who stops two criminals from robbing his restaurant. This act of heroism not only brings unwanted media attention, but also out of the woodwork comes Ed Harris, the mafia thug, stating that Tom is the man they have been searching for all these years. I will not tell you whether he is or isn’t, but I will tell you to NOT go out and rent this movie - just disregard every trailer that you may have seen for it on the television or in theaters, because they do not tell the truth - the trailers promise a decent twist of a movie, instead you get nauseous. Whoever did the trailers needs to be fired and then blackballed from every movie studio and any job they may apply for in the future.
JARHEAD
Jarhead tells the story of a third-generation marine (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his challenges at boot camp and in Iraq. What follows is a glossy tale of marine life where all is fun and games until an Iraqi is waiting around the bend to blow you away. Even though the cinematography is brilliant and it is slightly entertaining, I would have had to pick someone other than Jamie Foxx to star in this with Gyllenhaal. Foxx’ self-importance, egomaniacal attitude, and delusions of grandeur since winning his Oscar for Ray makes me want to vomit. His new cd, his “TV. Special”, running Ray Charles into the ground with Kanye West, and his over the top performance in this movie show us nothing more than what we already knew- he got lucky with Ray. Go back to IN LIVING COLOR – oh yeah, that’s right… it got cancelled.
HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
As a self-professed Harry Potter nut, I was psyched when this DVD landed on my desk. It is year four at Hogwarts, and the Quidditch World Cup and the Triwizard Tournament, are all that Harry and his friends can think about – until Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters resurface and cause a huge stir in the wizarding community. Throw in a horrible witch who has it in for Harry, a new Dark Arts professor, and mermaids, and you have one interesting semester at Hogwarts. The visuals in this movie are more stunning than the last installment, and it is nice to see the young actors start to look the same age as Harry and his friends. Alan Rickman is at his slimy best, Michael Gambon returns as Dumbledore (we miss you Richard Harris) and Miranda Richardson does an excellent job as the horrible witch Rita Skeeter.
