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Tuesday, January 4th, 2005
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Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums) brings more of his quirky imagination to the cinema with this, his latest film, co-written by Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming).
The Plot:
Plot summary by Internet movie database: Internationally famous oceanographer Steve Zissou and his crew--Team Zissou--set sail on an expedition to hunt down the mysterious, elusive, possibly non-existant Jaguar Shark that killed Zissou's partner during the documentary filming of their latest adventure. They are joined on their voyage by a young airline co-pilot who may or may not be Zissou's son, a beautiful journalist assigned to write a profile of Zissou, and Zissou's estranged wife and co-producer, Eleanor. They face overwhelming complications including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy.
The Players:
Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, Rushmore, oh come on, it's Bill Murray) plays Steve Zissou. Zissou is somewhere between a washed up movie star and Jacques Cousteau. He struggles to find his feet in a world that seems to need him less and less and regard him as little more than a relic from another world. He is quirky and charming and foolish. Murray turns in another stellar performance, as he's done for Anderson again and again.
Owen Wilson (Royal Tenenbaums, Starsky and Hutch) plays Ned, Zissou's possible son. He's a pilot for Air Kentucky and his accent makes me flinch even more than Don Cheadle's badly done accent in the Ocean's 11 movies. It's inconsistent and basically incorrect, but frankly, you wind up not caring in the long run. He's a little dopey, extremely conscientious and tremendously funny. Again, Wilson has a great chemistry with Anderson and Murray, and it comes through on the film.
Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings, The Missing) plays Jane Winslett-Richardson, a reporter for an oceonagraphic magazine who serves both as the thorn in Zissou's side and his hope for life as a documentary film maker. Dealing with her own demons in the form of an illegitimate pregnancy and struggling to find her story, she adds to the mix that which only a new woman on a ship can: sexual tension.
Other notables in the film include Willem DaFoe (Spiderman, Shadow of the Vampire) as Klaus, the german first hand on the ship that makes me laugh anytime he's on the screen; Anjelica Huston as Eleanor Zissou, the brains in the Zissou organization; Michael Gambon as Oseary Drakoulias, Zissou's rather blunt and quirky producer; and Jeff Goldblum as Alistair Hennessy, Zissou's arch nemesis.
Overall:
If you're looking for another Royal Tenenbaums, you're not going to get it. Anderson has managed to write each of his films very differently, and this film is no exception. It's much more quirky and offbeat, while still dealing with the issues of family, relationships, love and self-discovery. The performances by all of the players are top notch and the story moves fairly easily along.
The undersea graphics are fun, and the colors and sets all serve to give a sense of the fantastical or magical in the film, while Zissou's crew and their idiosyncracies tend to emphasize this as well. The film has a very retro feel with a very modern story line.
The other thing to keep in mind about the film is this: it's a creeper. While it sometimes moved slowly and sometimes was just plain silly, overall the ultimate feel of the movie left me entertained. And that's what I paid for.
To Sum Up:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is rated R for language, drug use, some nudity and violence.
If you like Wes Anderson, Bill Murray or Owen Wilson, then go see it. If you're looking for something light and entertaining, put it on your list.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Saturday, September 25th, 2004
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The Plot:
This synopsis is taken from the earthlink entertainment page On Friday, Shaun is in a rut. At 29, he's coasted through life--and still hasn't gotten very far, usually winding up at the local pub, the Winchester. His roommate Ed looks up to him--when he can take his eyes off the TV, that is. Liz is re-evaluating their relationship, particularly after Shaun fails to do something special for their anniversary on Saturday. That day, there are train delays, people fainting in the streets, TV news reporters on unexplained calamities. No, it can't be--but it is--the dead have risen. Saturday's isolated incidents mushroom into a full-on zombie assault and, once daylight breaks, it's Sunday bloody Sunday. As manners and flesh take a beating, it's time to separate men from meat, humans from zombies, and living from undead. Shaun and Ed grab whatever is at hand to repel the attacking zombies, summoning reserves of strength they didn't know they possessed and straining muscles they forgot they had. Rounding up friends and family, they press on towards the sanctuary of the Winchester. All that stands in their way are hordes of the flesh eating undead
The Players
Simon Pegg (British television and sketch comedy mostly) plays Shaun. Shaun is that twenty-something that wants to do things with his life. Someday. He's charming and he's funny, he's that guy everyone likes because he's everybody's pal. He's the one who'll come to work on Saturday, even if he had other plans. Or he'll take the blame for the mistake his friends made. He's that guy. Once the Zombie attacks start, though, he's the guy that surprises and charms us all by coming through in a pinch. I am a little in love with him.
Kate Ashfield (mostly smaller production company films) plays Liz, that girl who probably loves Shaun but needs more from her life than going down to the local pub every night for entertainment. She's that other twenty something who wants more from her life. Today. She sees Shaun, as loveable as he is, as a hindrance to the life she wants rather than as a way to get there. But she also is willing to follow him when he steps up to try and help save the day.
Most of the other actors in the film are known mainly through British smaller films. You may recognize Penelope Wilton from Calendar Girls as Shaun's mum.
Overall
The greatest thing about this film is that it's not sure if it's a comedy or a zombie film, and much to my relief, it's both. The dialogue is great and never forced. It's campy without being ridiculous, and it's edgy without being terrifying. The zombies are at once frightening, if not a little pathetic and sad. The film flows beautifully, transitioning from a story about a man who's been dumped to horror movie and back again without seams. The film is funny, scary, poignant and marvelously entertaining. As a fan of the horror movie that makes me laugh, this movie is without a doubt one of the strongest horror movies I've seen. Don't let the humor fool you: there is plenty of gore and tension. And death. Always with the death in the horror movies.
To Sum Up:
Shaun of the Dead is rated R for Zombie gore and violence as well as language.
Nudity/Sex: None
Language: fairly strong, but not inappropriately so
Violence: plenty. It's a zombie movie.
If you like horror movies, go see it. If you like dry humor, go see it. If you want to be entertained, go see it. If you really really can't stand seeing entrails, hold off.
That's all for me, save me the seat in the middle.
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Monday, January 19th, 2004
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Every now and then it's nice to see a movie on opening weekend. This was one of those movies I really wanted to see in the previews, but secretly feared all the best parts were in the preview and I'd pay money to hate it. It was so not the case for me.
( click here to read the whole story )
To Sum Up
Along Came Polly is rated PG-13 for sexual content, language, crude humor, and some drug references. There's some brief nudity (butt shots), a bit of violence (not much at all) and lots of crude humor.
This flick was definitely worth the full price, and possibly worth a look when it comes out for DVD.
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Sunday, January 18th, 2004
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Since my mom's in town, I let her pick the movie. So we caught this film, based on a true story.
( click here for the whole story )
To Sum Up
Calendar Girls is rated PG 13 for nudity, some language and drug-related material.
Sex/Nudity Well, they ARE shooting a nude calendar.
Language Not terribly bad. enough to keep it PG-13, but no worse.
Violence None.
This is a great film. It tugged at my heart, it made me evaluate my friendships and it made me love life, no matter what stage of my life I currently inhabit. And, above all that, it's just plain funny. Definitely a full price film, worth consideration as something to keep. I'll probably buy it for my mom for her birthday, at the least.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Last week, we all went out to see the widely touted Big Fish.
( Click here to see the whole thing )
To Sum Up:
Big Fish is rated PG-13 for a fight scene, some images of nudity and a suggestive reference.
Violence There's nothing too graphic.
Language Very little in the way of profanity.
Sex/Nudity Brief nudity.
I loved this movie. It was a fantastic adventure that is beautifully rendered for the screen. But what made it the most wonderful was the father and son interaction and the growth they share together. Definitely worth seeing at full price, and probably a keeper when it comes out on DVD. I expect a couple of acting nods and a cinematography if not a best director and/or picture nod when the Oscar nominations come out next month.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Wednesday, September 17th, 2003
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At the end of a summer congested with 2 or 3 great movies, several good ones and huge pile of suck, it's nice to ring in the autumn with a slew of anticipated movies and find out that at least one of them is really great.
( Click )
To Sum Up
Matchstick Men is rated PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, some sexual content and language. The body count is low, there's no nudity and the language is pretty tame.
This movie is a definite must-see. It's going up there with The Italian Job and Seabiscuit as one of the better movies to see this year.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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This amazing true story opens in America at the turn of the century: opportunity is everywhere. People can strike out with 29 cents in their pockets and make a living. One could imagine that imagination and prosperity, growing hand in hand in a nation of ingenuity, could take anyone anywhere. And then the crash came.
This story is about men who lost something: money, family, their world, their way of life. The story is about 3 men who find one another and ride a path to history. There is Red Pollard (played by Tobey Maguire of Spiderman), a Canadian boy who loses his family when his parents send him to work with a horse owner in the American west. He grows up without the family he loved and who nutured him in a world of horses and racing and vices and fighting. He shows great spirit, but he's constantly lost, an orphan in a very unforgiving world.
Red comes to work at the race tracks at Agua Caliente in Tijuana along with Tom Smith (Chris Cooper of Lonestar), a quiet man of the range who trains horses. Tom is a man who is losing his world: the west of open ranges and freedom is rapidly being replaced by a west fenced in with barbed wire and traversed by automobiles. He is a man out of place in the new world of assembly lines, combustion engines and car races.
Thrown into this mix of horse races, gambling and chance is Charles Howard (Jeff Bridges of The Contender). He's a bicycle repairman turned car salesman who loses himself with the loss of his family. He wanders through part of his life, pushed by his friends, but at a loss for meaning and heart. He finds a woman who reminds him how to live and he finds the will to take some chances and to learn to live again.
These men's lives intersect with one tremendous horse, Seabiscuit. The Biscuit is a grandson of Man O' War. He was foundering in claiming races when his path crossed that of Tom Smith. Smith saw something in the horse's spirit that no one else seemed to see or cared to search for.
The film takes us beautifully through the story of each man and his relationship with the horse as well as each other. It shows us about second chances and redemption and the struggle. It also gives a glimpse into the backdrop against which this amazing team rose: a time of temperance, of poverty, of tremendous pain. Into all of that comes this small horse with a funny gait ridden by an oversized jockey, trained by a crackpot who lived in the bush and owned by a car dealer too dumb to realize his risks. It's the ulitmate underdog story, the Rocky of horse racing.
This film is beautiful in every way: the story, the editing, the blocking, the imagery, the acting, all of it. The story is moving, moreso because it's true. Granted, there are plenty of things left out of the story from the book. But the story doesn't suffer for it. We still understand the heart of the story, the meat of it. And that's what makes it grand. It's timeless. The book, of course, will always be better than the film. There's more history, more background, more in depth understanding of the men involved. But at no point did I find myself thinking "what about this?" or "hey, where's that part?" because once the film starts and you let yourself into the story, it's easy to become swept away.
This film is, simply put, the best film I've seen this year.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Okay, seriously, I can't bring myself to waste the time or the bandwidth on this one, so I'm summing it up:
The Scottish guy was cute.
The movie sucked.
Sharks don't GROWL. Ask anyone who knows me well: Sharks terrify me. I study them so I can know their weaknesses. They don't have voiceboxes.
I'm just saying.
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2003
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Gore Verbinski, a fairly decent director in his own right (Mouse Hunt, The Mexican), has finally hit it big with a blockbuster in this swashbuckling adventure based on, of all things, a ride at Disney World.
( click here for the full review )
To Sum Up:
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is rated PG-13 for action/adventure violence. The language is fine, there's no nudity, and although the body count is actually fairly high, the violence isn't entirely too gory nor that bad.
This is, like I said, one of the best movies of the summer. I'll definitely be investing in it once it's available for home enjoyment, and I'll likely go and see it again once or twice this year. In a summer full of sequels, it's nice to have an original. Even though I know there will be sequels and the sequels will, invariably, most likely suck.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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So I figured I've see the first two, I really do need to finish out the series. I'm not sure what the compulsion is, but well, I feel it. Sort of like the need to watch the train wreck as it happens.
( click here for the full review )
To Sum Up:
Terminator 3 is rated R for strong Sci-Fi violence and action, and for language and brief nudity. Given that the movie is called "Terminator" the body count is high. The language isn't as bad as one might think and the nudity is brief and mostly bootie shots.
It's a good action flick with lots of destruction, it's not bad if you enjoy the series. Definitely worth the matinee price to get out of the heat for a couple of hours and be distracted.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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I got a little behind on my movie reviews. It happens in the summer time.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is rated PG-13 for action violence, sensuality and language/inuendo. It's got plenty of butt shots, not much in the way of nudity, a relatively modest body count and pretty harmless language. If you're looking for 2 hours of mindless entertainment, you got it. If you're looking for a new story, watch the first one again.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Some movies just shouldn't have sequels.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
Legally Blonde 2 is rated PG-13 for some sex-related humor. The language isn't bad, there's no nudity or sex and there's little to no violence. There's also almost no accuracy in the film either.
If you really have to see it, find a value theater ($2 or less) or wait for it to make it to cable.
Save me the seat in the middle.
note: Iwas required by Brad to tell everyone that his reaction to this movie was, "Fuck." Not an entirely positive reaction. I remind him that it got us out of the house in an air conditioned setting. It was at least worth that.
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Wednesday, June 18th, 2003
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So it's the number one movie in the country. I had to see it.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
2 Fast 2 Furious is rated PG-13 for street racing, violence, language and some sensuality. There aren't that man bodies, there's plenty of racy clothing and the language isn't that bad.
If you liked the first, this one is enjoyable. If you hated the first, don't bother. If you need some eye candy and some ass-kicking cars for a couple of hours, this is definitely worth the matinee price.
That's it for me.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Okay, I'll admit it, I was expecting the worst. I wasn't entirely disappointed.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
Hollywood Homicide is rated PG-13 for violence, sexual situations and language. There's not much in the way of nudity other than underwear, the body count is somewhere around 8 and the language is mild enough for a PG 13. If you absolutely must see every movie that Harrison Ford or Josh Hartnett does, see it. Otherwise, I'd wait for it to make the ABC Monday Night Movie. Wait, does ABC still do that?
That's it for me tonight.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
Bruce Almighty is rated PG-13 for language, sexual content and crude humor.
It's a good date movie, a fun Jim Carrey movie if you like his stuff, and it's just generally an enjoyable 2 hours. Definitely worth seeing if you've already seen the other summer blockbusters, and it makes a nice change from the summer of remakes, sequels and comic book adaptations.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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In this summer of remakes and sequels, Disney's hit on a new story with Finding Nemo.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up
Finding Nemo is rated G. Obviously, no concerns about violence, language or sex. Although there are some scary chase scenes.
This is definitely a fun movie and you don't have to have kids with you to enjoy it. In fact you might enjoy it more.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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The nice thing about this remake is that no one seemed to see the original.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
The Italian Job is rated PG-13 for violence and some language. The body count is fairly low, the language fine and there's no nudity.
This is, quite possibly, one of the best movies I've seen in a long long time. If I had to pick only one movie to go see this summer, this would be the one. You may have missed the original, but definitely don't miss this remake.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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Peyton Reed, a native of NC, brought us Bring it On. Now he makes fun of the 1960s genre love story. And it's a hoot.
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
Down With Love is rated PG-13 for sexual humor and dialogue. There's no body count, no nudity and the language is fine. It's a good date movie, definitely a chick flick, and marginally fun. It's not a great movie, but it's also not the worst I've ever seen.
Save me the seat in the middle.
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So this review is a little bit late, but my feelings about the movie aren't any different.
The Matrix Reloaded is one of about a bazillion sequels this summer. There are a couple of things that set this one apart: it's part of a trilogy and it doesn't have a colon in the title (unlike Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, X2: X-men United, etc).
( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up:
The Matrix Reloaded is rated R for sci-fi violence and some sexuality.
The body count goes up, theres some nudity, the language is nothing to worry about.
My suspicion is that this film will make the most over the summer for a couple of reasons: early release date (5/15) and repeat business. It's definitely a film during which one needs to pay attention, and one I suspect one could see over and over and still miss important clues.
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( click here to see the full review )
To Sum Up
X-Men 2: X-Men United--Let me just take an aside here, it should really be Mutants United, not X-Men United, because, well, aren't the X-Men, by definition, united? They're the X-Men. They're all on the same team. It's when you add these new kids that there's a reason to point out the unitedness. So to speak. I digress. --is rated PG-13 for sci-fi action/violence, some sexuality and brief language. The language ain't bad. The body count is high, though. Wolverine doesn't keep himself from doing some killin' in this one. There's no nudity or sex, but there is some nice kissing.
If you even liked the first movie a bit, you'll definitely enjoy this one. It's a keeper. More than once in the theater and definitely worth purchasing the limited edition DVD when it comes out this Christmas.
Save me the seat in the middle.
Oh, another thing: there's a scene where Nightcrawler is hiding in a tree. If you go (or go back) to the film, look at his left hip. You'll see his fly wire (his safety rig). Seriously, this much money on special effects and digital imagery and no one caught that?
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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