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)

 

Heartbreaker (2010)

At a glance:
This unique French rom-com farce about a con artist who is paid to break up couples is funny, fast-moving, and a joy to watch from start to finish

Our review (with spoilers):
Movies are littered with compassionate con artists whose hearts are in the right place. Just like the hit men with hearts of gold, these types of people probably do not exist in real life. But I’ve got to admit I have a weakness for the sweet con artists in film. And no one could be sweeter than Alex (Romain Duris). Together with his sister and her goofy husband, their job is to use seduction to break up couples.

The film is wonderfully unconventional, and it is important that you stop reading right now if you haven’t seen it. It begins as a young woman leaves her obviously inferior fiancé by the pool. She wants to explore Marrekech and he wants to drink in a lounge chair and ogle women in wet t-shirts. She is driven to the dunes by a young man who provides medical supplies for needy children. The chemistry between them is instantaneous and strong. He doesn’t need to say much to get her to realize that her fiancé is not the right man for her. When they explore the desert dunes together and share a first kiss, this appears to be a romance film. But it ends there. Alex has done his job, and is not in this for love. The fiancé will be dumped; his mission is accomplished.

His next client is a bit more complicated. Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) and Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln) seem like a perfect couple. By masquerading as a hired bodyguard, Alex manages to get close enough to find out her foibles and fears, and in the process, he is surprised to find that he is falling in love.

Heartbreaker feels exotic if you are accustomed to Hollywood fare; Romain Duris’ scraggly beard and sneering but sincere smile are a welcome change from the leading men of Tinseltown. Light, and occasionally hilarious, it contains action, romance, glamour, and a little dirty dancing. When it ended, I felt I could have just started watching it all over again.

Rating:  3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Manages to be such a pleasant little soufflé of a movie that it's hard not to like it on its own terms."
- Ken Hanke (Mountain Xpress - Asheville, NC)

 

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Movie quotes:
"Put that coffee down! Coffee’s for closers only."
- Blake

At a glance:
David Mamet’s pen yields an uncompromising, highly charged drama about struggling real estate salesmen

Our review (with spoilers):
GGR is an intimate, highly charged look at a small real estate office and the men who toil there. Working with bottom of the barrel leads, they try to sell land in Arizona. It sounds like an obvious scam, but they manage to make it palatable – even as they, for the most part, fail to close. The one exception is hot shot Ricky Roma (Al Pacino). His performance garnered the Oscar nomination, but the entire cast (Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, and Alec Baldwin) are fantastic. The unique, stylized, repetitive staccato dialogue penned by David Mamet is used to reveal the vicious underbelly of real estate sales. Almost all of the Mamet writing is gold, but one scene in particular is top shelf: when Ed Harris and Alan Arkin are speaking about – but definitely not talking about - stealing the prized Glengarry leads.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Words fly with the speed and impact of bullets."
- Phil Villarreal [Arizona Daily Star]

 

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)

 

Lust, Caution (2007)

At a glance:
Lust, Caution is Ang Lee’s lavishly tragic story of a woman who sacrifices her heart and her body to aid the Chinese resistance of the Japanese during World War Two

Our review (with spoilers):
Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang) is a young woman who becomes deeply involved in the Chinese resistance movement against Japan during World War Two. She begins as an actor, depicting patriotic plays and rallying support for the cause. Then, led by the passion of Kuang (Leehom Wang), she and a small band of actors turn to undercover work in an attempt to isolate and assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is spying for the Japanese. Wong eventually gets close enough – and intimate enough – to expose him, but her proximity exposes her emotions to his intoxicating power – and each of them are influenced by the undeniable power of love and lust. In this beautiful, lavishly filmed epic tragedy, Wong makes perhaps the ultimate sacrifice, allowing herself to fall in love with a man whom she knows is condemned to death by her own actions.

Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"A beautifully rendered, long, drawn-out but ultimately very satisfying story of betrayal and revenge in an uneasy setting of wartime paranoia."
- Damon Wise (Empire Magazine)

 

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)

 

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Movie quotes:"The young ones make great pets. Just make sure you get rid of them before they mature. Believe me, the last thing you want is a human teenager running around your house."
- Limbo

At a glance:
Although Tim Burton’s take on the apes franchise is flawed in big ways, it’s still entertaining pulp sci-fi

Our review (with spoilers):
From the very beginning, there are gorilla-sized problems with Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes. First, the space sequences have nothing that stamps it as a Burton film. Then, we get to the Planet (of the you-know-whos) and suddenly Burton decides that the apes should be amusing quipsters, obsessed human-lovers, or violent warriors. Every ape is a cliché. No one truly cared about making the apes into layered characters, so they come off like so many cartoon Grinches, with no one more Grinchy than Limbo (Paul Giamatti). Contrast this (and I know it’s not completely fair to flash forward) with the way Ceasar is constructed in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. He is leader, friend, warrior, and thinker – capable of limitless paths and emotions – and his multi-layered character is created virtually without using the spoken language.

The good news about Burton’s take on the Planet is that his eccentric touches finally are evident. The choices might be wrong, but it’s still fun to watch. For example, he sets up an unusual love triangle, with Ari the chimp (Helena Bonham Carter) and Daena the underage cave-girl (Estella Warren) both fawning over stranded astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg). The film continues to improve once Leo leads a small band of apes and humans against the warring regiments of the brutal Thade (Tim Roth). Charleton Heston gets an extended cameo dying scene as Thade’s father.

Even though the choices are strange, Wahlberg’s performance seems too subdued, and this feels like a film driven to cash in on the franchise, it’s still light entertainment and a lot of breezy fun.

Rating: 2.5 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"...one of the most entertaining check-your-brain-at-the-door flicks in recent years."
- David Nusair (Reel Film Reviews)