Sing

A new movie review from The Movie Snob.

Sing  (B).  I saw the sequel (Sing 2) several months before I saw the original, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the original just fine.  This animated feature is set in a Zootopia-like world of anthropomorphic animals.  Our protagonist is Buster Moon (voice of Matthew McConaughey, Sahara), a koala who is the wildly optimistic owner of the town’s run-down live-performance theater.  The creditors are at the door, so Buster hatches a scheme to raise money with a live singing competition show for a $1,000 prize. But a misprint in the flyer turns it into a $100,000 prize, and complications ensue.  Will the show come together?  Can Buster and his ragtag group of amateurs save the theater?  The plot is awfully similar to the sequel. I noticed that a slacker sheep (voice of John C. Reilly, Cedar Rapids) and a Sinatra-esque mouse (voice of Seth MacFarlane, TV’s The Orville) are important characters in Sing but did not come back for Sing 2. The girl-power porcupine Ash (voice of Scarlett Johansson, The Island) is a standout in both movies.

Sing 2

A new review from the keyboard of The Movie Snob.

Sing 2  (B-).  I missed the first installment of this potential series of animated flicks, but I don’t think it hurt my understanding of what goes on in this sequel.  The setting is Zootopian, meaning it’s the real world, but populated entirely by talking animals who are, for all practical purposes, human.  Our protagonist is an ambitious and wildly optimistic koala named Buster Moon (voice of Matthew McConaughey, Bernie), who is the impresario of a successful theater in some small town.  Moon dreams of taking his local success of a musical to a big city that is an obvious stand-in for Las Vegas.  Through a series of improbable events, he persuades Mr. Crystal, a mobbed-up hotel owner who happens to be a wolf (voice of Bobby Cannavale, Annie, doing his best Alex Rocco impersonation), to hire Moon and his ragtag troupe for his hotel’s theater.  Unfortunately, (1) the musical Moon promises to deliver hasn’t been written yet, and (2) Moon lands the deal only by promising he can get reclusive rock star Clay Calloway (voice of Bono, a member of the popular band U2) to appear in the show.  Naturally, Moon has no connections with Calloway whatsoever.  Other notable participants in the movie include Reese Witherspoon (Cruel Intentions) as a maternal pig and Scarlett Johansson (Hail, Caesar!) as a take-no-guff porcupine.  But I think I got most of my laughs from Miss Crawley (voice of the film’s director Garth Jennings, Fantastic Mr. Fox), who is a decrepit old chameleon with a glass eye, and Porsha Crystal (voice of Halsey, A Star Is Born), the hotel owner’s spoiled daughter who elbows her way into the lead role in Buster Moon’s musical.  It’s a little long and a little over-stuffed with subplots, but it’s not bad.

Captain America: Civil War

The Movie Snob checks out more men in tights.

Captain America: Civil War  (B+).  Wouldn’t you know: every time I start to wonder if the superhero genre is played out, the next superhero movie I see turns out to be entertaining and enjoyable.  The plot of CACW was reasonably clear, and the fight scenes were exciting without being too ridiculous.  Most of the Avengers seemed to show up for this one, including Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr., Iron Man), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd, Ant-Man), and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, Vicky Cristina Barcelona).  There were also a couple of people I didn’t recognize: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen, Liberal Arts) and Vision (Paul Bettany, Dogville).  They must have joined the club in a movie I missed.  Vision was a little troubling to me; he seemed so powerful as to kind of upset the balance of power.  I mean, he can shoot lasers and dematerialize at will?  But I still enjoyed it, and it didn’t really feel like two and half hours.  Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) and Marisa Tomei (The Big Short) pop up in small parts, which was kind of fun.  The same directors (Anthony and Joe Russo, of Community fame) also directed Captain America: Winter Soldier, which left me cold, so I’m glad to see they’ve upped their game.

Hail, Caesar!

New from the desk of The Movie Snob.

Hail, Caesar!  (B-).  With the glaring and painful exception of Barton Fink, I have yet to see a Coen brothers movie I didn’t like.  (Granted, I haven’t seen them all.)  True Grit, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou? are all classics in my book.  Their current release has its pleasures, but I think it is definitely a lesser entry in the Coen canon.  It’s a pure comedy and a tribute to the movies of the 1940s and 1950s.  (Apparently there are a gazillion references to movies and Hollywood scandals of that era.  They went over my head, but I think I did catch an homage to Fargo.)  Josh Brolin (Sicario) stars as Eddie Mannix, a honcho for Capital Studios who is pulled in a million directions at once as he tries to keep his movies and his movie stars out of trouble.  George Clooney (Intolerable Cruelty) costars as Baird Whitlock, a matinee idol who is supposed to be starring in a big Ben Hur-like production but who has been kidnaped by a mysterious group called The Future.  And there are scads of other stars on hand, including Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel) as a fey director of costume dramas, Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation) as a pregnant movie star in a mermaid suit, and Channing Tatum (She’s the Man) as the star of a South Pacific-like musical.  I enjoyed the energy of the picture, but it didn’t really seem to add up to much—except maybe to say gee, isn’t show biz crazy?

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Movie Man Mike checks in with a blockbuster.

Avengers: Age of Ultron. (B+).  This film is a fun, entertaining Summer action blockbuster film.  It’s got all the usual characters—Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).  And of course, there’s even some screentime for Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson).  With all the characters, you almost wonder how writer Joss Whedon has time to develop the characters and the story.  But Whedon is no newcomer to this.  There’s time to develop a little backstory—particularly for Hawkeye and even time enough for a little budding romance.  And there’s time to develop an action packed story arch with the unintended creation of Ultron—a super android (James Spader).   By the end of the film we are introduced to a new superhero—Vision (Paul Bettany), who teams up with the good guys to help defeat Ultron and his army of super-being androids.  There’s plenty of action in this film but I have to say that after a while some of the fight scenes in this film began to seem a little too similar to the fight scenes in the last Avengers film.  I just hope that’s not a sign that the franchise is wearing thin.  Certainly, there will be more to come.  And you will want to stay for the credits so that you’ll get a glimpse of the next villain to do battle with the Avengers.

Chef

New from the desk of The Movie Snob.

Chef (C+). This movie has been playing in Dallas theaters since the beginning of the summer, so I thought I’d better see what could justify such a lengthy run. It was pleasant enough, but nothing to write home about. Jon Favreau (Couples Retreat) writes, directs, and stars as Carl Casper, a well-known Los Angeles chef in a swanky restaurant. A Twitter feud with a snarky food critic gets Casper fired, and he decides to reconnect with his love for cooking—and with his 10-year-old son, whom he hasn’t had much time for since a divorce—by starting up a food truck. It’s a perfectly decent movie, but it felt a little slight for the big screen. And occasional brief appearances by big stars—Robert Downey, Jr.! Dustin Hoffman! A tatted-up Scarlett Johansson!—are more distracting than anything else.

Under the Skin

A new review from The Movie Snob.

Under the Skin  (D).  Director Jonathan Glazer’s last movie was the 2004 release Birth, which I thoroughly disliked but saw anyway because it starred Nicole Kidman.  Now Glazer is back with this creepy sci-fi movie starring Scarlett Johansson (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) as . . . well, it’s hard to say exactly.  My best guess is that she is an alien in human form, kind of like Jeff Bridges in Starman, but she is definitely not just trying to get home.  Basically, she drives a van around Scotland, looking for men who are unattached and won’t be missed.  When she finds one, she lures him back to her lair (not difficult, since he is invariably lonely, and she looks like Scarlett Johansson with short dark hair) where something decidedly unpleasant happens to him.  But that makes the movie sounds more straightforward than it is.  It is extremely slow and arty and vague, and it sort of reminded me of another arty sci-fi film I really disliked, Upstream Color.  But if you’re in the mood for a slow, creepy, unsettling, confusing movie, this is the film for you.  Rated R for graphic nudity, sexual content, some violence, and language.  In short, not recommended.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Movie Snob takes on the First Avenger.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier  (C).  I enjoyed the first Captain America story, but this one was just sort of meh.  Dislocated in time, square-jawed Steve Rogers (Chris Evans, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is not sure he’s really fitting into the shadowy ranks of the intelligence organization known as SHIELD.  For one, he doesn’t trust Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, Deep Blue Sea), probably because he wears a sinister eye-patch.  For another, a bunch of SHIELD guys seem to want to kill him for some reason.  On top of all that, there’s this hot girl he maybe sort of likes, but she’s always trying to get him to ask other girls out–plus she’s a former KGB agent nicknamed the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, The Other Boleyn Girl).  But enough kidding around.  This movie is 2 hours and 15 minutes of earnest and dull.  There are lots of fights and explosions, of course, but nothing ever really seems to happen.  Robert Redford (Indecent Proposal) seems to have a good time slumming as a top SHIELD guy, and Cobie Smulders (The Avengers) effectively pulls off her tiny recurring role as Agent Intense Brunette Sidekick Of Nick Fury.  A few TV actors unexpectedly pop up in small parts, which was kind of fun.  But on the whole, the movie left me unfulfilled.

her

New review from The Movie Snob.

her  (B).  This is an interesting movie that sort of revisits issues raised in the 2001 flick A.I.  Suppose we do manage to create true artificial intelligence.  How will we relate to sentient mechanical beings?  Will we be able to love them?  Will they be able to love us back?  Her is set in the near future, in a gleaming but rather sterile version of Los Angeles.  Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) plays Theodore Twombly, a lonely sad sack of a guy who’s about to get divorced from Catherine (Rooney Mara, Side Effects).  After hearing an advertisement he decides to get a copy of OS1, the world’s first intelligent computer operating system, and in two shakes he’s talking to and falling in love with “Samantha” (voice of Scarlett Johansson, We Bought a Zoo).  And why not?  Samantha is smart, lively (if that’s the right word), solicitous, sympathetic, and sounds like Scarlett Johansson.  She seems much easier to deal with than real women, like the nameless blind date (Olivia Wilde, Drinking Buddies) Theodore meets early in the movie.  On the other hand, as one might expect, there are certain downsides to “dating” an entity with no physical body and a godlike IQ.  Director Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich) gets some laughs from the weird situations that inevitably arise, but he generally plays it as a straight drama.  I enjoyed it.  It didn’t hurt that Amy Adams (American Hustle) co-stars as Theodore’s friend and neighbor Amy.

We Bought a Zoo

From the desk of The Movie Snob

We Bought a Zoo  (C+).  This was a nice enough little movie, but not good enough to give a strong recommendation.  Matt Damon (The Adjustment Bureau) plays Benjamin Mee, a recent widower and father to an angry 14-year-old son and an adorable 6- or 7-year-old girl.  He decides the family needs a change of scenery, so he starts house hunting.  Before you can say “resale value,” he has bought a house some 9 miles outside of town that is attached to, as the title indicates, a small, broken-down old zoo.  A small team of dedicated zoo employees led by the fetching Kelly (Scarlett Johansson, The Island) tries to help Benjamin get the place up to code so the jerkish state inspector (John Michael Higgins, A Mighty Wind) will let them reopen and start making money to keep the place afloat.  A nice concept, but at 2:04 the movie feels long, the relationship between Benjamin and Kelly is left curiously undercooked, and the talented Elle Fanning (Super 8) is wasted as the youngest zookeeper who inexplicably falls in puppy love with Benjamin’s rude son.  And a few curse words hamper the general family-friendliness of it all.  Its heart is in the right place, but you can definitely wait for the DVD.

Scoop

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Scoop (B). Woody Allen (Manhattan) directed and starred in this 2006 comedy. Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson, Iron Man 2) is an American journalism student in London. She sees a ghost of a recently deceased British journalist, who gives her a lead that an at-large serial killer called the Tarot Card Murderer is none other than Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables), the dashing son of a British aristocrat. Woody Allen plays a stammering stage magician called Splendini who gets drafted into helping Sondra with her investigation. Things get complicated when Sondra and Peter get romantically involved. The mystery aspect is not terribly convincing, but it’s an enjoyable light-hearted comedy. Oh, and I was happy to see Romola Garai, one of my favorites since her performance in I Capture the Castle, in a small role as Sondra’s chum.

Iron Man 2

A second opinion from The Movie Snob

Iron Man 2 (C). I think Movie Man Mike gave this sequel high marks, but I just can’t go there. In fairness, I had a slight headache when I entered the theater, so maybe I wasn’t in the best shape to see a loud action movie. But my head was POUNDING by the time I left. Anyway, if you saw the first Iron Man, this is basically more of the same. Robert Downey, Jr. (Tropic Thunder) reprises his role as Tony Stark, a zillionaire businessman with a suit that gives him superpowers. Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) steals most of his scenes as metal-mouthed villain Ivan Vanko. Scarlett Johansson (He’s Just Not That Into You) has surprisingly little screen time as girl-from-legal/secret-martial-arts-expert Natalie Rushman. Anyhoo, it’s loud, lots of stuff blows up, and the cuts are edited so fast you really never know what’s going on. Stay through the end credits for a scene that I guess hints at the contents of Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 2

Movie Man Mike chimes in on a summer blockbuster

Iron Man 2 (B+). The general rule for sequels is that the second movie is not as good as the first. Not so with Iron Man 2. The sequel is at least as good as the first and probably better. Where the first movie was focused upon introducing the character and the concept, the second movie is able to develop the character further and bring some new challenges to Iron Man. This is a great Summer film because it’s full of high-stakes action scenes. The conflict in this movie comes from the fact that the military sees the Iron Man technology as a potential threat and it wants the technology for its own purposes. Iron Man, played by Robert Downey, Jr., assures the military that the technology is safe in his hands. Little does he know, a Russian villain named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) has the technology, and he develops his own super-suit. Add to the mix Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), who’s an arms dealer desperate to get the U.S. Government’s business, and you have a recipe for a potential catastrophe. The cast has a lot of surprising big names (also Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Samuel L. Jackson), all of whom play their parts well and add flavor to the mix. If you don’t see this at the theaters, you should at least rent it. And if you haven’t seen the first one, check it out too (although it’s not a prerequisite to understanding and following the second film).

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

From the desk of The Movie Snob

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (C+). Seems to me that Woody Allen has grappled with the same problem in several of his movies, including this one. The problem is, once you decide that there is no God and no afterlife, how do you find meaning in life? All of the characters in this movie who express a point of view share Allen’s atheistic materialism, and they seem to be at a loss as to how to answer this basic question. Vicky (Rebecca Hall, The Prestige) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson, The Island) are young American women set loose in Barcelona for a summer, and both come under the spell of a charismatic Spanish artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men). Complicating matters are Vicky’s engagement to a bland but perfectly nice yuppie back home in the States and Juan Antonio’s continuing involvement with his crazy ex-wife Maria Elena (played, convincingly, by Penelope Cruz, Nine). The performances are good, but given the premises of atheistic materialism it is difficult to build any tension into the story. Cristina has fully abandoned bourgeois morality, so it is hard to care how her relationship with Juan Antonio (and Maria Elena) turns out. If the only rule is follow your heart, it’s rather hard to make wrong choices. In short, Cristina is a bore. Vicky, on the other hand, provides at least a little drama, since her getting involved with Juan Antonio would require transgressing the last bourgeois convention standing, that you really ought not cheat on your spouse or probably even your fiance. But if we are merely temporary collections of molecules bouncing around in the void, why should we abide by even this seemingly minimal constraint? In a way, this movie is a perfect counterpoint to Brideshead Revisited, which I reviewed yesterday. Brideshead asks what would happen if you really believed in God and Catholicism and tried to live your life accordingly. Vicky asks what would happen if you really didn’t believe in God at all and tried to live accordingly. It’s an interesting concept — but it makes Allen’s characters less interesting people.

The Nanny Diaries

DVD review from The Movie Snob

The Nanny Diaries (B-). I was surprised that this movie did not do better at the box office, considering how popular the book was. (I read and enjoyed the book, way back when, but have long since forgotten most of the details.) The movie is a pleasant-enough way to spend 106 minutes. Annie Braddock (Scarlett Johansson, Under the Skin) is a young woman trying to figure out who she is and what she wants out of life. By sheer happenstance, she finds herself hired on as the nanny for a fabulously wealthy family in Manhattan, with Mrs. X (Laura Linney, The Savages) as her exceptionally high-strung boss. She bonds with her charge, a kid by the name of Grayer (Nicholas Art, Syriana), and tries to flirt with the Harvard Hottie (Chris Evans, Snowpiercer) who lives in the Xes’ building, all the while knowing that the situation will have to come to an end–probably sooner than later, given Mrs. X’s temper. Linney steals the show, in my opinion, but then she’s always good. Worth a rental.

The Other Boleyn Girl

From the desk of The Movie Snob

The Other Boleyn Girl (B). I never read the novel, and I don’t know the real historical details of the story, so I may have liked this film the better for it. The failure of King Henry VIII (Eric Bana, Troy) to produce a male heir is about to rock England, and when the upper-middle-class Boleyns get the inside scoop that Henry is ready to throw over Catherine of Aragon, weak-willed Sir Thomas Boleyn does not hesitate to throw his daughters at the monarch. Conniving Anne (Natalie Portman, Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace) tries first and fails to impress the king, but her sweet sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson, Eight Legged Freaks) succeeds — for a time. Of course, history demands that Anne win out in the end, and once she elbows Mary aside events move so fast that there’s not even time to mention poor St. Thomas More. Critical reaction has been mixed at best, but I enjoyed it as a good, sudsy Saturday afternoon flick.

The Movie Snob’s Best of 2006

Hello, Gentle Readers! You know the drill — here I will announce my picks for the best movies of 2006. For a movie to be eligible for consideration, I had to see it for the first time in a theater during the calendar year 2006. Yes, that means that some late 2005 releases will be included in my list, but deal with it. For the record, I saw 45 movies in the theater last year, of which nine got a B+ or better. (My track record with DVDs was distinctly worse: 19 first-time views, and only one with a B+. Ben Hur, if you’re wondering.)

Best Drama: And best picture of the year, in my humble opinion, was the riveting United 93. Filmed in documentary style, it grabs you from the start and never lets go. How they persuaded some of the people who were on the ground on 9/11 to play themselves in this movie is beyond me. I would have been way too freaked out to relive those events. The runners up are also excellent films. First I’ll mention The Nativity Story, and I’ll urge you to catch it in the theaters if you still can, before the Christmas season is too faint a memory. I thought it was reverent and sensitive without crossing the line into sentimentality. Even if you’re not Christian, go see it and see part of what makes us tick. And second I’ll cite the outstanding 2005 release Capote. Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers a terrific performance, but there’s not a sour note in this movie about a fascinating 20th century character. And I can’t omit The Queen, starring an outstanding Helen Mirren in a quasi-documentary about the aftermath of Princess Diana’s death.

Best Comedy: I’m not sure it belongs in this category rather than Best Drama, but let’s put it here anyway since good comedies are in short supply — Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderful mix of the absurd and the genuinely sweet. A marvelous depiction of how even the most dysfunctional family can learn that it is, indeed, a family. Watch out for the language, though; this is not a movie the whole family can enjoy. Honorable mention to The Devil Wears Prada, especially the terrific performance by newcomer Emily Blunt as the office assistant that Ann Hathaway unintentionally elbows out of their boss’s favor.

Best Action/Adventure: King Kong takes this one, hands down. The critics didn’t go ape for Peter Jackson’s last effort, but I thought it was a terrific popcorn flick. I’m hard pressed to come up with any other contenders in this category. Let’s put The Illusionist here too, featuring yet another fine performance by Edward Norton, and outstanding supporting work by Paul Giamatti.

Best Documentary: Sorry, Al, I’m going to pass over An Inconvenient Truth in favor of an IMAX movie called Deep Sea 3D. But the Truth wasn’t nearly as hard to swallow as I thought it would be, so that’s something.

Honorable Mentions: Woody Allen’s thought-provoking Match Point, the inimitable Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents, Scarlett Johansson going Wilde in A Good Woman, architecture documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry, a fabulous performance by Gretchen Mol in The Notorious Bettie Page, suburban angst run amok in Little Children, Daniel Craig’s blond Bondshell in Casino Royale, and Robert Altman’s last film, A Prairie Home Companion. All well worth adding to your Netflix queue.

A Good Woman

A new review from The Movie Snob

A Good Woman (B+). This movie is based on an Oscar Wilde play (Mrs. Windermere’s Fan), so you know you can count on sparkling dialogue if nothing else. In this case, there is more besides, namely a thoroughly enjoyable plot. The acting, by contrast, is shaky. Helen Hunt (Soul Surfer), not my favorite actress even under the best conditions, seems completely out of her element, and my cousin Diane thought much the same about Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin). The movie is set in 1930, and Hunt plays Mrs. Stella Erlynne, an American who is apparently a professional mistress. As the movie opens, she is in America, finding herself unfortunately short both of funds and of lovers to foot her bills. She sees a newspaper article about Meg and Robert Windermere (Johansson, Mark Umbers), who are fabulously wealthy newlyweds from Rhode Island, and next thing you know she has tracked them down to the Amalfi coast in Italy. Mrs. Erlynne quickly scandalizes the idle rich who have congregated in Amalfi, and Meg finds herself doubting Robert’s fidelity even while she herself is pursued by the caddish Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore, The Lady in the Van). I thought the movie got off to a slow start, and that Hunt’s performance was strange and offputting. (She seemed to deliver every single line in exactly the same flat, inflectionless manner.) But the plot and the dialogue ultimately won me over. Worth seeing.

Capote; Match Point

Good movies about bad men — new reviews from The Movie Snob:

Capote (A-). This movie could have been subtitled “The Writing of In Cold Blood,” because that aspect of Capote’s life is virtually the entire substance of the film. And a very interesting story it is. The movie opens in 1959 with Capote living the high life among the literati and glitterati of New York City. Homosexual and effete, he swims through that milieu like a fish through water. But that November he reads a newspaper story reporting the brutal murders of all four members of the Clutter family, a family of farmers in remote rural Kansas. For some reason, he is fascinated. He travels to Kansas with his friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and gradually ingratiates himself with the community, the lead detective on the case, and, once they are captured, the killers. He conceives of the idea of writing a book about the event and the people, a “nonfiction novel” he calls it, and he rightly senses it will be a masterpiece. In his single-minded pursuit of the story, he is willing to feign interest, sympathy, affection, whatever it takes to get the information he needs. The friend I saw the movie with detected a human side to Capote, that he actually did grow to care about one of the two criminals, Perry Smith, and felt remorse about abusing Smith’s trust. I am not so sure; to me he came across as a thoroughly nasty piece of work, even a sociopath. Yet, I was totally engrossed in this movie, which doesn’t happen often when the protagonist is not sympathetic. Go see this movie, and then look for Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Ides of March) to take the Best Actor Oscar home this year.

Match Point (B). I’ve skipped the last few Woody Allen movies, but the critical hurrahs for this one got me back to the theater. It is a good telling of a sordid tale. Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Vanity Fair) is a young Irishman from a poor background. A former professional tennis player who never made it big, he moves to London to teach tennis at a posh club. He is a bit of a cipher, professing vague ambitions of wanting to make some sort of contribution with his life, but apparently having no direction whatsoever. Anyway, he soon falls in with the wealthy Hewitt family, first giving lessons to Tom Hewitt (Matthew Goode, Stoker), then dating his sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer, Transsiberian), and then working for their father’s company. But he is dangerously attracted to Tom’s fiancée, an unsuccessful American actress named Nola (Scarlett Johansson, Hail, Caesar!). Complications ensue. I would probably have liked this movie even better except that it bears an awfully strong resemblance to the excellent Woody Allen picture Crimes and Misdemeanors. Even after having points deducted for lack of originality, though, this movie is still a good watch.

Munich; Syriana; The Island

New reviews from That Guy Named David.

Munich (A-)

Coming into the this movie, I thought the Munich Olympic massacre occurred in 1968 instead of 1972, showcasing how very little I knew of the event. After the movie, I found myself surfing the internet to find out more about the hostage situation, as well as Israel’s response to the massacre over the next several years. To me, that is the sign of a good movie if it makes me want to learn more about the subject of the movie. The bulk of the movie follows the actions of a hit team organized by the Mossad (Israeli Secret Service) to track down and assassinate those responsible for the murder of the 11 Israeli athletes in Munich. While the movie does spend a significant amount of time showcasing the action scenes portraying each of the assassinations, Spielberg does a masterful job of setting forth the moral equivalency debate that such actions inevitably provoke. Throughout the film, you can see the actions of this hit squad incite reactions from the Muslim groups targeted by the Israelis. Spielberg did not attempt to sugarcoat the acts of Israel, nor justify the acts of the Muslim groups responsible for Israeli-targeted terrorism. However, Munich forces the audience to take in all the acts and make those judgments on their own. Very well-done. One of the best movies I have seen in quite a while.

Syriana (C+)

I saw on a “Best of 2005” movie show where the reviewer listed Syriana as the number 4 movie of 2005. He must have been vying for a position in Section 8 Productions, George Clooney’s production company, because I can name 20 films I saw this year (and some I didn’t see) that put this one to shame. Syriana is a complicated movie intended to set forth the complex relationship between oil companies, foreign governments, Muslim extremists, private and governmental lawyers, energy analysts, princes and emirs, presidents, and the always demonized Central Intelligence Agency. While generally these are the types of stories I find interesting, the way Syriana is made annoyed me more than it kept my attention. Basically, for the first hour or so, you have snapshot followed by snapshot followed by snapshot with absolutely no connections between any of them. Eventually (during the last 30 minutes or so), the director attempts to put the snapshots together to form a mosaic but instead gets a convoluted, confusing, and anti-climactic ending that leaves the viewer wondering what in the hell happened over the past 2+ hours. If you are in the mood for a heavy movie, see Munich. On a side note, they have one scene showcased in the movie that was filmed in Hondo, Texas, hometown of this reviewer. Needless to say, it was a little strange seeing my hometown of 6000 people acknowledged for a few seconds in a George Clooney/Matt Damon movie. Not enough to make me enjoy the movie, but still interesting.

The Island (B-)

Pleasantly surprised. I kinda have a thing for Scarlett Johansson (We Bought a Zoo), and my girlfriend has a major crush on Ewan Moulin Rouge! McGregor (I think we look very similar). Anyway, she refused to watch the movie because the plot line of human clones discovering their clonehood and then attacking their makers really didn’t appeal to her. Nonetheless, because I got bored with football about 8 hours in, I decided to conclude my holiday weekend with a mindless action movie. Not bad. There really isn’t a whole lotta substance to the movie, and the dialogue is weak, but for some reason, I enjoyed it. Maybe I was taken by the beauty of young Ms. Johannson, but in any event, not a bad rental.

The Island

A review from The Movie Snob:

The Island (B-). I was drawn to this movie by the premise: in a near-future America, the ultra-wealthy pay for the creation of clones as “insurance policies” in case they ever need organ transplants. What happens when a couple of clones (Ewan McGregor, Jane Got a Gun; Scarlett Johanssen, Scoop) get wise to their inevitable fate? I was simultaneously repelled by the fact that director Michael Bay has also been responsible for Bad Boys II and the recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. Curiosity won out, and I was reasonably entertained. In fact, my only real complaint is that the movie is just too long, especially in the second half once the clones have made their break for freedom. I’ll admit the car chases and other action sequences are pretty impressive (if over the top), but less would have been more. With judicious editing, this could have been a B or B+.

In Good Company

From the desk of The Movie Snob:

In Good Company (B). Not a bad little movie. Dennis Quaid (The Parent Trap) plays Dan Foreman, the head of advertising sales for the number one sports magazine in the company, and a happily married man with one daughter in college and another apparently in high school. His comfortable existence is thrown into turmoil by two unexpected events: his wife gets pregnant, and his employer is bought by a corporate mogul along the lines of Rupert Murdoch (cameo by Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange). This results in Dan’s getting demoted to the number two sales spot, and a 26-year-old hotshot named Carter Duryea (Topher Grace, Spider-Man 3) becomes his boss. To make matters even worse, Carter gets romantically involved with Dan’s older daughter Alex (Scarlett Johanssen, Hail, Caesar!). The depiction of corporate life in modern America is the most arresting part of the movie, as the magazine’s new owner immediately starts to identify and fire longtime employees in the interest of improving the bottom line. And there are some surprisingly touching moments along the way. Worth a look.

Lost in Translation

From That Guy Named David:

Lost in Translation (A). I hate to disagree with our friends Chris and Kara and with our guest reviewer, but this is one incredibly great movie. Maybe I’m a sucker for the “looking for all the answers” movies (even though I realize the actual “answers” are probably unattainable). Nonetheless, Bill (Stripes) Murray’s performance was incredible, and Scarlett Johansson (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) was surprisingly good. For me, this movie struck a few chords and made me think about a lot of things that are occurring and have occurred in my life. Very impressive in all respects. Best movie I’ve seen this year (and yes, that includes Big Fish).

Lost in Translation

A new take on Lost in Translation from a guest reviewer (a doctor instead of a lawyer, for once!).

Lost in Translation (D+)

I saw this movie Valentine’s Weekend with a few friends. Upon leaving the theater I wondered how I could have wasted $6 and two hours of my time on this movie! The movie begins with a scene of Scarlett Johansson’s behind, which should have been my first clue. The “plot” (if you want to say it had one) is the relationship of Bill Murray (St. Vincent)–a washed-up actor posing for whiskey ads in Tokyo and Scarlett Johansson (The Nanny Diaries)–a young wife newly married to a photographer on a photo shoot. The two are involved in not-so-stellar marriages and are slowly drawn to each other. The obvious subject “lost in translation” is the language barrier between the Americans and the Japanese. The other is the fading emotional connection between the two stars and their spouses. BOORRING! Except for the scenes of Japan or, if you are of the male persuasion, the many scenes of Scarlett Johansson in her undies, there was not much to keep the viewer’s attention. The ending leaves a lot to be desired to say the least! I was not as generous as the Movie Snob, who gave this film a B.

Girl With a Pearl Earring

From The Movie Snob:

Girl With a Pearl Earring. (C) I saw this independent flick last week with a charming, affable, and witty friend of mine from work. The critic in the local paper just raved about this movie, but I was not overwhelmed. It tells the story of Griet (Scarlett Johansson, Match Point), a Dutch servant girl who gets a position in the home of master painter Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth, Genius). He takes an interest in her, and she eventually sits for the portrait that is now known as “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” I didn’t think the movie was all that insightful into the artistic mind or process. Mostly it made me grateful I am not living in the 17th century — especially as a servant girl to a moody artist and his annoying family. My companion loved the movie, especially the part where Vermeer’s creepy old mother-in-law shrieked, “You are a fly in his web! . . . We all are!!!” In fact, she’s still quoting that line this week.