August Movies

The Dark Knight Rises - (2012) - Yes, I actually got out and saw a current movie in the theater!  The latest Batman film has generated all kinds of commentary.  For some it is just the latest in a beloved story cycle while for others it is a disjointed shambles of a movie.  When I go into to see a comic book hero film I have a specific set of expectations, many of which are what I DON'T expect.  For this Batman movie there were a variety of annoyances.  Bain, the primary villain, has a funky looking mask that covers his mouth and most of his face.  For some reason they decided that leaving a fair amount of his dialogue unintelligible was a good idea.  We also miraculously transport Bruce Wayne to the other side of the planet without disrupting the pace of Bain's evil plot for Gotham City as well.  There are a variety of other bumps and gurgles in the story as well.  But hey if you want coherent plot lines you probably shouldn't be going to comic book hero movies in the first place.

 Gotham and the Caped Crusader are facing some serious problems.  Bruce Wayne is literally getting too old for this Batman schtick, Commissioner Gordon has gone over to the Big Lie to fight crime, and just for fun Bain wants to bring back the Reign of Terror right here in Gotham City.  Oh and let us not forget, yet another movie maker takes a shot at bringing Cat Woman to the big screen.  Like his predecessors Christopher Nolan can't resist playing up the kinky side of the character but does manage to give us one with more depth and real character than we've seen before.  The movie is grandiose and loud and cynical.  It makes for an interesting political commentary on our times and a half way decent comic book movie.  It's so dark and grim that I'm not sure I'd be in a big hurry to see it again.  So I'm going to split the difference on a rating.  Depending on what you want it could slide either way.  God knows there are better comic book movies but likewise God knows there are worse.
Rating - *** 1/2  Definitely Worth A Look

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) - Call these Pooh Bear movies.  Movies of very little brain.  To enjoy the Transformer movies you will need to be in touch with your inner 12 year old boy,have no understanding of basic physics and not be hung up by things like good writing and plot.  If you can do that you'll probably enjoy the simplistic story lines, the high quality of production of the battle scenes and the middle school humor.  The Transformers alternate between high tech virtually invulnerable dreadnoughts and tinkertoys that can be brought down by simple automatic weapons fire and who have some of the worst aim I've ever seen.   All led by the Rocky Balboa of robots Optimus Prime who seems to get his butt kicked movie after movie. I am fascinated by a movie where the male lead spends large amounts of time screaming like a 12 year old girl (and I work with 12 year old girls so I know that sound).  Add in Leonard Nimoy as the voice of the villain in Dark Side of the Moon and there is enough there to fill a weekend with mindless silly fun.
Rating - *** Worth A Look

One For the Money (2012) - This movie pretty much got savaged by the critics and I guess I'm a little puzzled by that.  I've read ALL the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich.  Loved 'em.  So when I see people talking down Katherine Heigl's job as Plum I'm surprised.  I thought she brought the perfect blend of well meaning incompetence to the role.  Daniel Sunjata didn't thrill me as Ranger (his look rather than his acting) and while Debbie Reynolds is fun as Grandma Mazur her look is also wrong.  So was it a great movie?  No.  But let's be honest, Evanovich's books are great fun rather than great literature.  The movie follows the trend.  And the author seems to have been happy with the movie too.  But between the reviews and the fact that it didn't make a lot of money we may never see another.
Rating - *** Worth A Look

The Good Shepherd (2006) - Over the years I have had three subjects that have fascinated me - Organized Crime (especially the Mafia), Terrorism and Spies.  Must be something about people with secret lives.  So I was looking forward to this movie about the early days of the CIA.  The actual history is filled with intrigue, deception and plenty of illegality (there's a very good argument that the agency is itself illegal).  Add in a cast that includes Matt Damon, Robert DeNiro (who also directs), Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Michael Gambon and even a short bit with Joe Pesci (as a Mafiosi!) and I was primed.  What I got was a ponderous, wandering tedious monster that runs almost 3 hours.  And I'm not sure it was worth the investment.
Rating - ** Not Impressed

Ali (2001) - After about an hour of this biopic I found myself spending less time watching the movie and more time trying to come up with a word to describe it.  Ponderous would be a good place to start.  And that's sad.  I am of the age where Muhammad Ali was one of the biggest figures in popular culture.  Count me among those who hold The Champ (and there's only one) in highest respect and esteem.  The greatest heavyweight of all time for me.  The injustice by the U.S. government and the boxing world against Ali is tragic. The story is epic. Sadly the movie isn't.  It wanders sluggishly and too often feels like it lacks focus.  Filled with great performers and a pretty decent turn by Will Smith as Ali the movie just never puts it together.  The best scenes in the movie, just like in real life, are the ones between Ali and Howard Cosell (played by Jon Voight).  The Champ deserved better.
Rating - ** Not Impressed

Cowboys and Aliens - 2011 - I am certain this movie sounded like a great idea.  An alien vessel arrives in the Wild West of the late 1800's.  And then it's simply movie icon time.  I mean COWBOYS and ALIENS! Plus Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford!  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Um, no.

Over 160 million dollars later they ended up with a movie that can't make up its mind what it really wants to be - cowboy movie, sci-fi, serious, tongue in cheek.  It tries a little of all of it and ends up with a mess.  A mess that might have been so much more.
Rating - ** Not Impressed

The Kids Are All Right - (2010) - Another one that should have been so much more.  Great cast (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson) and an amazing concept (Lesbian couple family where both kids were the results of artificial insemination from the same donor.  Kids want to know more about who their biological father is.  Lots of issues to mine there).  Sadly the movie never decides what it wants to be.  It flips from standard sitcom dialogue to intense dramatic moments with a series of illogical, unreasonable and gratuitous sex scenes sprinkled in.  By the end of the movie there's a whole series of issues, none of which are resolved.  Which is really this family's problem.  They all run away from the problems preferring a shallow surface "happiness" to any kind of reality.

The basic set up of the movie is pretty standard.  The fact that the parents are two moms in a long term relationship really gave this the chance to be an important moment in the movies.  And I think it dropped the ball.  The performers are good enough to carry it along but not enough to save it.  Apparently shot in just 27 days I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if they'd had more time to work the material over a little more.  A Best Picture Oscar nominee that I think got by because people wanted this movie to be a success rather than on its intrinsic quality.
Rating - *** Worth A Look

Lost Horizon - (1937) - Here's a classic movie with a behind the scenes story almost as interesting as the movie itself.  Frank Capra took James Hilton's best selling novel "Lost Horizon, filmed large portions of it in an ice locker and turned it into a 6 hour monstrosity that ran grossly over budget.  It ruined Capra's relationship with Columbia's mogul Harry Cohn who did the final edit himself.  But the movie had a twisted history even after it's release.  It took years to pay back its cost and it was adapted to meet FDR's propaganda needs at the beginning of the Second World War.  The movie continued to be edited until by 197,0 when it was given to the American Film Institute for restoration, there was no longer a complete version of the film to be found.  The version here has 7 more minutes of audio then it does video (which they solve with various production and publicity photos over the soundtrack).  There are also sections where the only available footage was so bad that even the best digital restoration could only make it passably clean.

The story itself is of a small group of people who end up in a sheltered valley high in Tibet.  They are confronted with a society of peace and a people granted exceptionally long lives.  Each of them confront the issues differently.  There are difficult decisions to be made, decisions that might be pivotal in the survival of mankind.  This is a great cast - Ronald Coleman, Sam Jaffe, Jane Wyatt, Edward Everett Horton and H.B. Warner.  Visually this movie has some stunning sequences and the overall look is beautiful. The final cut is still a pretty fair length (2 hours 14 minutes) but it's certainly worth the investment.
Rating - **** Recommended Viewing

Ken Burns' Prohibition - (2011) - I am a huge Burns fan and I'm working my way through all the backlog of his documentaries.  He has a wonderful way of bringing history alive.  Prohibition should be taught as a watch word in America for the bankruptcy of trying to legislate morality.  Making liquor illegal resulted in more crime and more drinking.  It increased corruption and made us a nation of hypocrites.  The documentary mini-series introduces us to all the players behind the 19th Amendment and the Volstead Act.  It takes us through the issues that gave rise to the Temperance Movement and what led to its inevitable failure.  The usual great stuff from Burns.
Rating - **** Recommended Viewing

Paul - (2011) It's a geek movie.  It's a sci-fi geek movie and a movie geek movie.  And it's just a lot of fun.  You should know that the script writers use obscenity like 12 year olds away from their parents for the first time(Note - I watched the Unrated version.  The Theater version is probably MUCH cleaner).  It gets a little tiresome (although it's kind of funny with Kristen Wiig's character who has never sworn before and is quite, um, creative at it).  It is an absolute quote fest and is filled with little tributes to other movies. Is Paul a great movie?  Not even close.  Is it fun and funny and a helluva lot of laughs.  Great Saturday afternoon movie.
Rating - *** Worth A Look