Super 8 (2011)

Movie quotes:
Cary: He's too stoned!
Martin: Oh, drugs are so bad!

At a glance:
A joint J. J. Abrams / Spielberg monster sci-fi movie that is loud, fun, and derivative

Our review (with spoilers):
1960s small town America, and five teens witness a major train wreck up close while making a super 8 movie. One of their teachers purposely wrecked the train, and he warns them not to tell anyone what they have seen, or they and their families will be eliminated. Soon, dogs are fleeing in all directions, people start disappearing, and machines of all kinds are stolen in the night.

True, Super 8 feels a lot like every other bunch-of-misfit kids movies (like The Goonies, etc.). It’s highly derivative, and it’s a little disappointing that it really doesn’t have much new to offer. This feels like an oh-so-carefully planned and plotted Hollywood Blockbuster. On the other hand, under the skilled direction of crowd pleaser J. J. Abrams, all the right chords are struck. It’s feather-light, satisfying, and forgettable – with a couple of nice performances from Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning.

Rating: 2.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"A Spielberg pastiche of uncanny precision and sublime pointlessness."
- Henry K. Miller (Sight and Sound)

 

Melancholia (2011)

Movie quotes:
"The earth is evil; we don’t need to grieve for it."
- Justine

At a glance:
Lars von Trier’s slow-moving, occasionally beautiful but mostly painfully entertainment-free end-of-the-world tale is really a thinly disguised ode to depression

Our review (with spoilers):
There’s no doubt that I have masochistic tendencies, and I like to confirm that every couple of years by forcing myself to sit through the latest Lars von Trier joint. It all began many years ago when I was taken to see von Trier’s first English language film, Breaking the Waves. Eschewing its supposed artfulness and deep hidden meaning, I found it to be an absurd film, populated with people performing moronic acts to suit the hidden pleasures of their director. Art porn, as it were. Many critics disagreed – but I don’t care. I took a long break, but was not disappointed by the deep symbolism, talking foxes, genital mutilation, and abject fail of von Trier’s Antichrist. Many critics agreed – but again, I don’t care. And now this.

Melancholia begins with an 8 minute segment of unrelated end-of-the-world scenes, all filmed in super-slow-motion. I was glad my partner wasn’t watching this; she had enough of super-slow-motion during TV coverage of Wimbledon tennis a few years back.

And then the film proper starts, with section 1 – Justine (Kirsten Dunst) and you know what? Von Trier proves once again that he has limitless talent. The wedding scenes are filmed with a hand held, but it is not for style – it is the perfect way to portray the claustrophobic dining and dancing. I was completely immersed in the moment. The content, however, is another story: we watch Justine trash her own wedding, not by getting drunk and vomiting, but by (supposedly) being depressed, although it comes across more as petulance and immaturity.

Section 2 is titled Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and now Justine is in full depression mode. Perhaps this is being caused by planet Melancholia, which is tracking toward Earth (although scientists say that it will not collide). Justine is now paralyzed with depression; there are long scenes of her trying to get into the bath while Claire tries to help her and coerce her. The dour Gainsbourg is not ideally suited to help anyone out of depression – perhaps if an in-drag Jim Carrey or Robin Williams had been cast in that role, the movie would have been a lot shorter. Next, Claire brings out the big guns: she makes Justine’s favorite food: meatloaf. Justine, guided to the table with eyes closed, smells this delight and smiles for the first time. She eagerly takes a bite, but then quickly spits it out and begins to cry, saying, "It tastes like ashes." "Good ashes or bad ashes?" asks Claire. Okay, Claire did not say that; I’m just punching up the script with a few jokes. Claire actually says, "Did you say ashes…or asses?" Alright, Claire did not say that either. I’m really seeing Emma Stone in this role now.

The next day, Justine rides her favorite horse, but in another painful-to-watch scene, almost beats the poor animal to death when it will not bend to her will by crossing a narrow bridge. Later, Justine planet-bathes naked in Melancholia’s light. Claire is an observer to this. As Melancholia draws near, Claire begins to stress about the collision and basically continues to do so for the next hour of the film. John (Kiefer Sutherland) keeps telling her that the scientists are right. When John realizes that they are wrong and a fatal collision is imminent, he scoots into the beaten horse’s paddock and somehow gets himself killed. These are not happy people, even if no planets were about to crash into the Earth. Claire reaches full hysteria, but the depressed Justine gets into a Zen-like state as the end nears.

I’ve pieced together a possible reason for why von Trier has made Justine the character who ultimately copes with the end of the world better than Claire. Von Trier suffers from severe depression, so he casts the depressed woman as the one better suited to cope with life and death. The Earth and its inhabitants deserve to die anyway, in his eyes. That is the way von Trier he sees the world. His movies are without joy. His characters are driven to desperation; they often torture themselves and others. If you find anything redeeming in all of this, good for you. I see it as a petulant child indulging his own ego. I will say this: I respect any director who can get their work to the screen without having it reshaped by a Hollywood committee, or changed by counterproductive audience screenings. Woody Allen, Ken Russell, and, yes, Lars von Trier are names that spring to mind.

Rating: 1 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"I see Lars Von Trier movies to remind me why I hate Lars Von Trier movies."
- Willie Waffle (WaffleMovies.com)

"If only Lars von Trier took into account that audiences might actually want to enjoy "Melancholia," rather than endure it, or sift through it, or submit to the director's will, he might have made something extraordinary."
- Mick LaSalle (San Francisco Chronicle)

 

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Movie quotes:
Omar: [slowly] I’m…Officer…Omar…Coleman. I’m…your…parole…officer.
Ned: I’m Ned Rochlin. Why are you talking so slow?
Omar: I just figured, looking at your sheet, that since you sold grass to a uniformed police officer that you must be retarded.

At a glance:
A mildly funny, extremely pleasant actor-fest about a likeable man who naiveté causes problems for his family

Our review (with spoilers):
Our Idiot Brother is a mildly amusing comedy about a naïve man and his mildly quirky family. The title may sound like dumb and dumber, but this is a completely different take on the same type of character. You’d be hard-pressed to believe that Ned (Paul Rudd) could exist as is in real life, but there are certain elements of his character that can be seen in real people, and that gives the story an honesty that many laugh out loud type comedies do not have. Could the script have been improved by being punched up with a few more jokes? Perhaps – but at the risk of making it feel like a script that had been punched up.

The film starts are Ned’s trusting nature leads him to sell pot to a cop – and not a plainclothes cop, but a cop in full uniform. This leads to a jail term that might depress the average person, but Ned just views it as another adventure on the journey of life. When he leaves prison and is rejected by his former girlfriend, Ned turns to his mother and three sisters for a little help. As the different family members share him around, Ned’s honesty reveals hidden, often nasty truths, and soon, virtually every relationship he gets near is placed in jeopardy.

Nothing too deep or humorous happens here, but it matters little, not when you get to watch the immensely likeable Rudd having so much fun with the role, and when the film is, ultimately, as sweet as he is. He is helped immensely by a wonderful supporting cast (Emily Mortimer, who I loved in Transsiberian; Steve Coogan; Elizabeth Banks; Zooey Deschanel; and the wonderful Adam Scott). It’s such a good cast; they lift the script to a higher level than it would have achieved with lesser actors.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Rudd brings color and dimension to a borderline-simpleton schlub who could have easily become a one-note cliché."
- Alexis Loinaz (Chicago Tribune)

 

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Movie quotes:
John: Well, I’ll be perfectly frank. I’m excited about this corporate merger between our folks and the French company, but otherwise…I’m not a big Francophile.
Helen: John hates their politics.
John: Certainly been no friend of the United States.
Gil: Well, I mean, you can’t exactly blame them for not following us down that rabbit’s hole in Iraq with the whole Bush -
Inez: Oh please, let’s not get into that discussion again -
Gil: We’re not getting in – by the way, it’s fine for your father and me to disagree – that’s what a democracy is. Your father defends the right wing of the Republican Party and I happen to think you’ve almost got to be…like a demented lunatic, but it’s like -

At a glance:
Woody Allen parlays his love of art, history, and nostalgia to create a charming, Paris-based story of a Hollywood writer at the crossroads of his career

Our review (with spoilers):
Gil (Owen Wilson) and his fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams) arrive in Paris to do some pre-wedding shopping. Gil is in love with the city, particularly with its rich history, while Helen just wants to buy things and return to the good old USA. This is a somewhat unlikely couple; they disagree on the big things, but importantly agree on liking pita bread. One night, while Gil is out walking, he is transported back in time to his cherished 1920s Paris. There, as well as meeting a number of famous artists and writers (for example, Ernest Hemingway) he is instantly attracted to the lovely Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Soon Gil is questioning the decisions he has made in the present as he falls in greater love with the past.

After numerous failures and partial successes, Woody Allen has again done what he has done so many times in the past: he has created a gentle, insightful, funny ‘film’. Almost anyone can create a handful of scenes, but Allen makes a coherent, singular object which tells a story and creates a character arc. Likewise, Owen Wilson rides this great script to produce an Oscar-worthy performance, full of natural joy, humor, and melancholy. There were tears in my eyes from his performance, and from the startling realization that Owen and Woody are back, baby!

Rating: 3.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Woody Allen must have had a great time writing this screenplay."
- Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)

"An effervescent, witty and absorbing tale lost in time ... Allen rekindles his character love affair that made him such a satisfying film-maker a couple of decades ago."
- Lisa Giles-Keddie (Real.com)

 

Sucker Punch (2011)

Movie quotes:
"Who honors those we love for the very life we live? Who sends monsters to kill us and at the same time sings that we’ll never die? Who teaches us what’s real, and how to laugh at lies? Who decides why we live and what we’ll die to defend? Who chains us, and who holds the key that can set us free? It’s you. You have all the weapons you need. Now fight!"
- Sweet Pea (closing line)

At a glance:
Less a movie and more a collection of music video gaming sequences, Sucker Punch offers a wealth of visual candy and a teensy bit of plot

Our review (with spoilers):
Five girls work as dancers/escorts and are virtual prisoners of an evil man named Blue. They escape, literally, into a dreamworld where they fight mechanized dead Nazis, fire-breathing dragons, or glowing-eyed giant Asian martial artists. Fortunately for (some of) us, they do all this while still wearing their midriff bearing sexy dance outfits. To call this misogynistic is like calling water ‘wet’. That’s obvious but then these are dream/video game sequences and the girls are dressed just like girls in these video games have been attired for 10 plus years. This is a hen’s night out movie, and all five hens make a game effort to get it to work, and perhaps none more so than Abby Cornish, the gamest hen of them all. Sorry, couldn’t help it.

There are times when watching a film that I become painfully aware of said film’s "target demographic" and realize that I am not in it. Not even close. Such is the case with Sucker Punch. I can feel in my bones that if I were, say, between 15 and 23 again, I would think this film was the coolest thing ever. The girls are hot and young and they wear plenty of eyeliner. Even most of the guys wear eyeliner. If  there’s an Oscar for Best Eyeliner, Sucker Punch has got the statue – and on a more serious note, they’ll probably win a second one for Set Design or Special Effects - and probably for Sexiest Fetish Outfits.

But despite its general lowly ranking amongst critics, if one treats this film as a series of music video escapist fight game vignettes, anchored together by a dead-simple story, it’s a success.

Rating: 2.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Sucker Punch is what you'd get if you mixed Mulholland Drive, Showgirls and Tomb Raider and then turned it into a music video."
- Matthew Toomey (ABC Radio Brisbane)

 

Drive Angry (2011)

Movie quotes:
Cultist: We're gonna live forever!
The Accountant: If, by "forever", you mean the next 5 seconds, you're absolutely right.

Jonah King: I'm going to kill you then defile your body.
Piper: Until now and then, I'm gonna fuck you up!

At a glance:
Nicolas Cage and Amber Heard get a sassy, smart script and turn Drive Angry into an entertaining action film with a campy supernatural/religious vibe

Our review (with spoilers):
This is what is called ‘grindhouse’ – a movie about rednecks and for rednecks, but Drive Angry is also spoofing the genre – that’s kind of a given when Nicolas Cage is involved. Nic has taken on some ridiculous roles lately – he seems to enjoy acting of any type – but this one at least does not take itself seriously. If you are a ‘condemned’ soul like Milton out to avenge the death of a family member, you need someone pure of heart. Piper (Amber Heard) is who you want – she’s rough and ready, too – but has a righteous streak and is in many ways naïve and innocent. She’s the perfect angel to ride alongside the mythical avenger. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she looks great in short shorts and big cowboy boots too.

Milton has to affect his rescue from a crazed satanic cult leader bent on human sacrifice, while at the same time trying to stay ahead of a suit-wearing ‘accountant’, played to perfection by William Fichtner, whose job is to return Milton to the prison he escaped from.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Makes a loud, incoherent but oddly compelling case for the enhancing effects of stereoscopic projection on certain treasured objects of the cinematic gaze, like classic Detroit muscle cars, women's breasts and Nicolas Cage."
- A.O. Scott (New York Times)

 

Bellflower (2011)

Movie quotes:
"Dude, it’s like a James Bond car for drunks!"
- Milly

At a glance:
Writer/director/star Evan Glodell crafts a real-feel story of two slackers whose Mad Max fantasies drive their world into violence

Our review (with spoilers):
Bellflower appears to be a character study about two slackers who have a dream to create the ultimate Mad Max world around them. It seems innocent, even when they successfully build their own flamethrower. They are heavy drinkers but generally jovial, with Aiden (Tyler Dawson) using his charm to entertain the ladies, while Woodrow (Evan Glodell), simpler and seemingly sweet, gets in a pleasant relationship with Milly (Jessie Wiseman). But infidelity and a violent accident start to turn Woodrow into someone very different. Smarter people than me will probably realize earlier that alcohol, depression, and flamethrowers don’t mix, and that this may end badly. The subject matter is confronting and sometimes ugly, but there’s no denying the absolute filmmaking ability of writer/director/star Evan Glodell. How he took this hard to watch material and turned it into a film that is at times poetic and beautiful is in itself a miracle. More please!

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"A daring feature debut by Evan Glodell, "Bellflower" looks like it was shot with the digital equivalent of a Brownie box camera, and generates an almost palpable aura of anxiety."
- Joe Morgenstern (Wall Street Journal)

 

Another Earth (2011)

At a glance:
Sci-fi elements combine with a story of grief in this intriguing, intellectual drama/thriller

Our review (with spoilers):
Rhoda (Brit Marling) is a sharp young woman who has just been accepted into MIT. Her whole brilliant life is in front of her. She is driving home drunk from her celebration party when she hears, on the car radio, that a new ‘blue’ planet has been discovered. As she gazes up at the sky, she crosses the road and hits another car. The occupants are Yale professor John Burroughs (William Mapother), who ends up in a coma, and his wife and child, who die. Four years later, Rhoda emerges from incarceration, a quiet and severely damaged woman. Conversely, the blue planet has thrived in the interim; it appears to be frighteningly similar to Earth in topology, and when voice contact is made, it seems that the planet is a mirror image, including duplicates of the people. Rhoda dreams of escaping to this planet on one of the manned flights that are being planned. At the same time, she tracks down the professor. Her attempt to say who she is and to apologize is botched, and instead she begins cleaning his house, slowly improving his hygiene and his level of squalor.

The core idea has been used many times before – that of the infiltrator who ‘stalks’ someone with hidden knowledge about how they are connected. But Another Earth uniquely blends drama and thriller with a dash of sci-fi in ways that perhaps have never been mixed and mashed before.

The two leads are excellent. Marling makes the intellectuality of her character believable – and that is such an important element of the story. Mapother has an undercurrent of unpredictability in the way he carries himself – Lost fans will remember how his character Ethan combined congeniality with menace in the early episodes of that series. Here, his character is different but just as effective.

Director Mike Cahill (who co-wrote with Marling) turns a small budget into a beautiful film. It has its own pace as we wade through grief, but the moments of power are effective. One minor distraction was the overuse of crash zoom, although, in a sense, this effect fits well in a sci-fi themed movie; it reminded me of the fight scenes from the Battlestar Galactica reimagining.

Major spoiler alert – do not read this unless you have already seen the film! The last scene in the film features Rhoda’s double, newly arrived from the mirror planet. What does this mean? I believe it is an indication that Rhoda was about to find out that on the mirror planet, there was a version of herself that did not crash into the car, and that John’s family – and her life – were intact there.

Rating: 3.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Another Earth is a tough movie to shake off... resisting movie tactics that usually accompany such material. Using a sci-fi premise to engage a grounded, almost pedestrian story of guilt and regret is a bold stroke."
- Steve Persall (St. Petersburg Times)

 

Horrible Bosses (2011)

Movie quotes:
Kurt: Then next thing you know, she makes herself a little snack. A Popsicle. Then – a banana. And finally – a hot dog. I mean, c’mon – three penis shaped foods? That – that can’t be a coincidence, right? And - and eating ‘em in that weird order – that’s not a proper meal.
Nick: That’s hot to cold.

Detective Hagan: You wanna explain why you were doing 61 in a 25 zone, one block from the victim’s house, just moments after he got shot dead.
Nick: I was drag racing. I’m a drag racer.
Detective Hagan: You were drag racing? In a Prius?
Nick: I don't win a lot.

Dale: if you didn’t murder someone, what did you do?
Muther Fucker: You guys ever seen the movie, ‘Snow Falling on Cedars’?
Kurt: No.
Nick: I’ve never seen it.
Dale: I love that movie.
Muther Fucker: What happened was, I took a video camera into the movie and I bootlegged it. They was waiting right outside the exit.
Nick; You did ten years for video piracy?
Muther Fucker: They take that shit so seriously.
Dale: Not that seriously.
Kurt: We’ve been taking murder advice from some guy whose biggest crime is taping an Ethan Hawke movie!
Muther Fucker: So you do know the movie.

At a glance:
While perhaps not as funny as the favorable reviews would indicate, Horrible Bosses still benefits from a good concept, some excellent over the top performances, and Jason Bateman’s trademark deadpan delivery

Our review (with spoilers):
Three male friends regularly meet in the bar after work to trade stories about their evil bosses. Nick (Jason Bateman) has been toiling under Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) for a long time, with the carrot of a promotion dangling in front of him. When that promotion is denied, he is pushed over the edge. Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) is subject to the whims of a cokehead (an unrecognizable Colin Farrell) who regularly brings call girls into his office and makes no bones about his ultimate goal to bleed the company dry. Dale (Charlie Day) works for a female dentist (Jennifer Aniston) who is constantly flashing her body at him and trying to get him to have sex with her, even though he is engaged. Dale’s stories of abuse ("she keeps pushing her naked breasts in my face!") just don’t sound as bad as the stories told by the other guys. In any event, they all agree to off their bosses, and hire Muther Fucker Jones (Jamie Foxx), a scary looking black guy, to do the deed. Needless to say, complications of all types ensue. There’s a lot of mildly raunchy humor in this one, and some great scenery-chewing by Spacey and Aniston. And of course Jason Bateman is a standout for me with his low-key performance. But the other two ‘stars’ (Day and Sudeikis) aren’t up to a leading role in this type of film – and Bateman seems to play down to them, which diminishes his performance as well. In short, I didn’t laugh as much as I wanted to, but it had some great moments.

Rating: 2.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Seeks approval by establishing a sloppy routine of shock and improvisation, slapping viewers with pedestrian acts of misbehavior when something far more macabre was in order."
- Brian Orndorf (BrianOrndorf.com)

"The stars lack the charisma, the comic energy and the overall appeal of the A-listers playing supporting roles. That's a fundamental miscalculation."
- Robert Levin (Film School Rejects)

 

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Movie quotes:
"Tell me why I can’t be with Elise…because the last guy didn’t know."
- David

At a glance:
Based on a Phillip K. Dick story, there’s a clever concept at the heart of the Adjustment Bureau, but it is severely manhandled

Our review (with spoilers):
Congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) has his bid to run for the Senate squelched when  a long-ago college prank becomes a breaking story on election eve. Soon after, mysterious men appear, all wearing similar old man hats, to perform some sort of adjustment of events to suit their upstairs ‘chairman’. David finds out by accident, and then becomes our conduit to discover more about these ‘angels’ or case workers. Meanwhile, David continues to try to track down Elise (Emily Blunt), a mysterious woman who he met on election night, even though he has been forbidden to do so by these same adjusters.

This is your typical bland Hollywood approach to sci-fi. There’s a real laziness in establishing the A story. Why do we care whether David gets elected or not – just because he is young or is Matt Damon? Why do we care whether David and Elise make a love connection? The script and director George Nolfi barely lift a finger to convince us. And John Slattery plays his role way too flippantly for a guy who can change the world with a wave of his arm. There’s also way too much ‘Exposition Man’ syndrome - David conveniently has an angel (Anthony Mackie) to explain the convoluted rules of adjustment – most of which are soon broken anyway when it furthers the plot.

On the plus side, things briefly improve when Terence Stamp is on camera, and Emily Blunt’s dancing is excellent.

Rating: 2 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Philip K. Dick's story The Adjustment Team was published in 1954. But the movie The Adjustment Bureau only trades on Dick's name. All else is shoved aside by George Nolfi, who directed and wrote the screenplay."
- Tony Macklin (tonymacklin.net)

"We know Damon and Blunt are a perfect fit mostly because they finish each other's cutesy banter."
- Geoff Berkshire (Metromix.com)

"…all the sci-fi stuff about men in hats and trench coats dictating life on Earth clashes brutally with the lovey-dovey meet-cutes."
- Steven Snyder (Techland)

 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Movie quotes:
"Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!"
- Dodge Landon (homage to the original film)

At a glance:
James Franco is appealingly sincere, and Andy Serkis creates a memorable simian in the entertaining and visually impressive Planet of the Apes prequel

Our review (with spoilers):
In San Francisco, Will Rodman (James Franco), an innovative geneticist, has discovered a wonder drug that may be able to cure Alzheimer’s. He’d love to finish testing on chimpanzees and get it approved pronto so he can use it to help his own deteriorating father (John Lithgow). When one tested chimpanzee goes berserk, the order is given to abandon the project and terminate the chimps. Will rescues and cares for a baby chimp dubbed Ceasar. Soon, Caesar, who has inherited the wonder drug’s effects from his mom, begins to show signs of advanced intelligence.

I have to admit that I was not a big Francophile when I arrived at this film. James Franco had not over-impressed me to date. I thought his best roles were playing crazed eccentrics (in Date Night and Pineapple Express). He has a way of slurring his words that stretch his credibility as a genius scientist. And yet I must also admit that he is excellent here.

Ceasar is played by Andy Serkis. Serkis did all the physical movements while wearing motion capture gear, and then WETA Digital of New Zealand (the same group that did Avatar, and also Serkis as Gollum in Lord of the Rings) ape-ified him. Serkis is perhaps the world’s leading specialist actor at this type of role; wearing the motion capture does not detract from his performance, and he is able to inhabit a cross-species personality, making Ceasar captivating to watch. And in fact, the apes are so wonderfully realized, their story and interactions are much more intriguing than the clichéd humans.

This is an oft-told story of slavery, enlightenment, revolt, and freedom, modernized with state-of-the-art digitally enhanced performances. Action fans will enjoy the full-out 20 minute battle scene; I appreciated the personality/drama/thriller aspects more. But there’s something for everyone, and there’s little doubt that at least one more prequel can be stuffed in the timeline between this story and the original film. I’m already looking forward to it.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"It stays true to the central metaphor of the original films and takes its time setting the story up so that when the apes finally do run amok, we are totally invested in the story."
- Eric Melin (Scene-Stealers.com)