1 weekend - 4 Movies

So I went for a bit of a movie run this weekend, finding the time to fit in 4 movies in three days. The contenders are as follows:

Crazy Heart, Up In The Air, Invictus, and Avatar

Some were good and some were bad so let’s get started.

Crazy Heart:

I was really excited about seeing this movie after viewing the trailer to it. I loved the song, but after watching the trailer a few times I realized that the plot seemed very familiar. I know that stories and themes get recycled over and over in Hollywood and I’m fine with that, but come on, The Wrestler came out last year for Christ sake. Going into this movie I was hoping that I’d be proven wrong. I was really hoping that it wouldn’t be The Wrestler with different professions for the two characters (check it out, he’s a washed up singer this time around). Sadly this was not the case. I remember saying to myself that all it needs now is the reveal that he’s also a deadbeat dad, and you guessed it, the very next scene. I couldn’t believe it. And then the scenes that weren’t taken right out of the Wrestler also seemed vaguely familiar, and that’s because they were from another film that came out a few years ago that you might have heard of as well, it’s a little film called Walk The Line. Perhaps I’m being too hard on this movie. There were some good parts to it after all. The music was great and I still love the song Weary Kind by Ryan Bingham that was used in the trailer. Also Jeff Bridge’s acting was flawless and I would not be surprised at all if he gets a nomination this year. I admit that I may be too hard on this film because my favorite film last year was The Wrestler. If you are into music and especially have traveled the road from one shitty gig to the next, then I imagine you may like this movie a lot more than I did. I give it a C+/B-

Up In The Air:

I liked this movie, but I wanted to like this a lot more than I did (too high of expectations is a common trend for me). It had a lot of really good lines and I liked George Clooney’s character quite a bit, though I’m on the fence about his whole backpack speech. I get the point and see how it serves the movie and his character, but it just seemed a bit lazy from a screenwriting standpoint. That aside, I was happy that they focused on both the positives and negatives of what life throws at you. I always enjoy films that let the shitty parts of life come through and not shy away. The interesting thing about this movie was that all of those moments/emotions where relative to the individual characters. One person’s moment of happiness and enjoyment is another’s misery or loneliness. It’s definitely not the best picture of the year, but it’s a solid effort. I’d give it an A-

Invictus:

The less I can say about this the better. All you need to know is that both Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon give good acting performances, but the film itself is a complete bore. I would have so much rather seen a documentary on these events or if you are going to make a feature film, then make it more about Nelson Mandela, as that was the far more interesting character in this film. Also, it’s where more of the drama was, rather than the forced and already predictable (um it’s history folks) sporting angle they were going for. I give it a C-

Avatar:

I actually liked this more than I thought I would, but that’s not saying much seeing as I assumed I’d hate it to pieces. I was even surprised with myself that I was in the mode to see it (way to go marketing campaign!). The special effects where actually pretty amazing, though I didn’t really see the point for 3-D. So far the only movie that I think actually worked in 3-D was Coraline. This movie is definitely a shoe in for special effects. One thing I didn’t care for too much though was the voice over narration. I’m generally not a fan of narration, though it worked great in both Adaptation (a must see) and Fight Club. I also felt like they over did it with one of the underlying messages of the movie: Nature is good, respect nature and ecosystems. Yes I agree with the message, but I don’t need it driven over my head. Plus I think there are some much better movies out there that address this point (oddly enough The Two Towers comes to mind). Not to sound like too much of a hypocrite (as my favorite movie this year was Inglourious Basterds) but I didn’t care for the violence. Maybe the difference was that in Avatar the theater was full of very young (and obnoxious) kids. Yes it’s true that the violence was your typical action packed sci-fi violence and there was no real gore or blood associated with it, unlike Basterds, but it still bothered me because you had all this little kids cheering it on. In some ways I prefer the gore and blood that went along with Basterds more because at least it made you nauseous, and violence should make you feel nauseous, not cheerful. Overall I’d give it a B-

So to summarize:

Crazy Heart: see The Wrestler instead

Up In The Air: worth seeing

Invictus: skip it

Avatar: see it for the special effects alone, but otherwise why not be equally impressed by the Lord of The Ring films and get a better (albeit it longer) story out of it.

Top 10 List of 2009 (so far)

Tis the season of award movie bombardment. It seems as though every year the studios decide to withhold the film that have the best chances at winning awards for the end of the year or released in limited marked for a short period throughout the year. So before that mad rush of film viewing this month, of both future releases as well as the ones I’m playing catch up with, I wanted to make my own top ten list of best movies of 2009 (so far). And remember folks, this year the category for best picture at the Oscars will be chosen out of a list of 10. So, before this list gets all shaken around, I give you my Top Ten So Far:

#10 - The Informant!: I think I would have enjoyed this movie more if I watched it with a packed theater and we all remembered that it was a comedy. Yes, it doesn’t sound like a solid recommendation, I know, but I watched it alone and didn’t realize it was a comedy until I started to listen more closely to Matt Damon’s narration. His narration are just the random thoughts of his character, and man are they odd, but in a very funny way. He made this movie, and deserves an acting nomination for the role even. The overall film and other acting performances though are just so-so.
#9 - Public Enemies: I saw this movie at the very beginning of the year, so it’s not too fresh in my mind. I remember it getting just so-so reviews, but I actually liked the slow pace of the story telling. I thinking people expected an old-timey action packed bank robbery story, but it was much slower paced then that. Not quite an Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford slowness (though I loved that movie, much more than Public Enemies). The acting was solid and I remember loving the closing shot.
#8 - The Fantastic Mr. Fox: First and foremost, I was impressed with the artistic side of this movie. The attention to detail and style of stop motion was amazing (wow, two stop motion films made the list!) The cloths and sets stayed true to what I come to expect of a Wes Anderson film. Don’t be fooled by the marketing of this film. In my opinion this is no kids film (in fact I think they’d be bored with it) and very much a Wes Anderson film. He keeps that melancholic humor throughout, especially with the young kid fox Ash voiced by Jason Schwartzman. This film had probably one of the best death scenes of the year as well. I do have to say though that this film probably falls to the bottom of the list of Wes Anderson movies, but in no way does it make it a bad film.
#7 - Whatever Works: This was no Vicky Christina Barcelona, but it was still a decent Woody Allen flick. It was definitely reminiscent of his older work with the neurotic character that Woody Allen himself usually played replaced by the wonderful Larry David. Without him, the movie would have been garbage, so basically I’m putting Larry David himself on this list rather than the average Whatever Works.
#6 - Zombieland: I thought this was an original take on what is actually blossoming into it’s own genera: Zombie-Comedy. I appreciated the fact that they followed through with many of their jokes and onscreen typefaces throughout the film. Who would have guessed that onscreen typeface could be a character, and a funny one at that. Also, best cameo appearance, bar none.
#5 - The Hangover: Clearly the best comedy of the year so far. Without Zack Galifinakis though, this movie never would have worked.
#4 - Coraline: For a detailed review, see my first post. This made the cut for the imaginative feeling I was left with as I walked out the theater. The only thing missing was a song by The Decemberists.
#3 - Up: I was pleasantly surprised by this movie, especially from emotional/sentimental aspects of it. For being marketed as a kids film it really struck a chord in me and yes, even teared up (okay okay, so it doesn’t take much to make me cry at a movie. There, I said it.)
#2 - 500 days of Summer: I finally got around to seeing this a few months ago when it was still in the theater and man am I glad I did. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great take on the classic romantic comedy genre. It contains perhaps my favorite scene of the year, illustrating the perfect evening one has replayed over and over in their head vs. how the evening really plays out. This is all done in split screen side by side comparison and is great!
#1 - Inglourious Basterds: (see my previous post for full review)

Movies that I’m looking forward to that have yet to come out or that I just haven’t gotten around to are listed below. I’m realizing now that there are a lot of movies I need to watch. These are only the ones that I haven’t seen that I feel like could potentially shake the list up and are listed in no particular order.

Crazy Heart
The Road
Up in the Air
Moon
Where the Wild Things Are
Taken
Gomorrah
Sunshine Cleaning
Sin Nombre
Drag Me To Hell
Away We Go
A Serious Man
An Education
Precious
District 9
Invictus
The Lovely Bones