Rated: PG-13
STARS: Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Tom Wilkinson, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Ronald Pickup
DIRECTOR: John Madden
GENRE: Comedy/Drama
A colorful assemblage of "elderly" Brits heads off to India where their retirement dollars will go further. Awaiting them is the "newly remodeled" (according to the brochure) Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They arrive to find a structure that is crumbling and in disrepair. Sonny, (Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire ) the young, buoyant hotel manager has good intentions and a dream of renovating the place, but he needs to secure some funding. Some of the lodgers will make the best of it, and some will utter grouchy, mean-spirited things. In the end, each will find something or someone they've been searching for, and be transformed.
An ensemble cast as large as this one could be unwieldy, but there are many familiar names here, and I find it easier to remember a character's story when it's a face that I recognize. These are stock characters, for the most part, but it doesn't make their stories any less poignant or compelling.
There's Jean and Doug (Penelope Wilton & Bill Nighy) the not so happily married couple who lost their savings when they invested it in their daughters business venture. Nighy, of course, is a great comic presence, but he's more subtly engaged with it here.
Muriel, (Maggie Smith) a retired housekeeper who doesn't like India initially--maybe something to do with her being a racist and needing a hip replacement.
Evelyn, (Judi Dench) a recent widow and all alone.
Madge (Celia Imrie) is a wealthy woman on the prowl for a husband.
Norman, (Ronald Pickup) an aging lecher (or "horny old dude" in contemporary parlance) on the prowl for one night stands.
But the most poignant of the pensioners' story lines belongs to Graham, (Tom Wilkinson) a high court judge who grew up in India, and is back to find a man he loved when they were both teenagers, and hasn't seen since.
A subplot involves Sonny and his true love, Sunainia, (Tena Desae) whom his domineering mother doesn't approve of. She wants her son to enter an arranged marriage. It's a clash of traditional and contemporary Indian mores. Things will come to a head, and Sonny will face his moment of truth with his mother.
Beautifully shot and deftly paced, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel captures the bustle, the color, and the seductive allure of a land where cows and elephants saunter down the street--and the truly wise men are the ones who know enough not to follow too closely behind either one.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the best exotic movie I've seen since...well... Slumdog Millionaire.
Grade: A
Rated: R
STARS: Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley, Anna Faris
DIRECTOR: Larry Charles
GENRE: Comedy
If you live in society, you exist in two different worlds. The first is that of the public persona, where we are all good little boys and girls--socially conscientious and politically correct in word and deed. The second is the world of the inner individual, who instinctively feels there is nothing wrong with making light of things--including our ethnic, cultural, and political differences--as long as it isn't coming from a place of hate. Thank those like Sacha Baron Cohen that we have a place to go and hunker down for a couple of hours--the movie theatre--and make light of our world, because (hope this doesn't come as a shock) it's all an absurdist fantasy anyway.
In contrast to the ambush style mockumentaries Borat and Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen--in The Dictator--is working from a script he co-wrote. The result is a less cringe-inducing and flat-out funnier kind of raunch- fest. And while the bad boy humor here is hit and miss--when Baron Cohen connects, it's a right cross to the funnybone. If you think he's not going there...he's going there. (Though sometimes it's like that hooker you and your buddies took on the night of the senior prom--you enjoyed yourself, but felt kinda dirty afterwards.)
Admiral General Aladeen (Baron Cohen) is the despotic ruler--in the mold of Gadaffi and Saddam Hussein-- of the fictional north African country of Wadiya. He competes in his own Olympics, gives himself an unfair head start, and when other runners are closing on him, simply turns around and shoots them. He gives a speech in which he claims that the nukes his country is developing are for peaceful purposes, and can't keep himself from chortling at his obvious insincerity.
On his way to New York to address the U.N. Security Council over their growing concerns about his development of nuclear weapons, Aladeen is kidnapped by a hitman (John C. Reilly) hired by his scheming uncle, Tamir, (Ben Kingsley) who wants to bring democracy to Wadiya--not for any noble reason, but because it will open up the country's oil fields to development and make him rich. The tyrant escapes, but finds himself replaced by a look-alike decoy (flashbacks to Saddam Hussein). He is cast as a nobody onto the streets of Manhattan, (would've been cool to hear Dylan wafting nasally on the breeze: How does it feel... ) then runs into Zoey, the manager of a health food collective. He will fall for her (in a strange sort of way) as he plots his revenge. Don't get hung up on the plot--it's there mainly to facilitate the delivery of the various gross-out gags.
There is a poignant little soliloquy near the end that serves to remind us the perceived black and white world of bygone eras has long since clouded into muddled shades of grey.
I'm a soundtrack guy, and The Dictator has a great one by Erran Baron Cohen that, in a "serious" film would be conjuring images of exotic sand dunes, but here I was flashing back to a certain Ray Stevens parody tune from the sixties.
Anna Faris brings to Zoey a bewitching blend of naivete and new-age stars in her eyes (she thinks that Aladeen is a political refugee named "Alison Burgers.")
And Ben Kingsley...well, he's done it all now, hasn't he?
The Dictator is being hotly debated as we speak I've already precipitated one online brushfire with my assessment of the film at another site. Bottom line, I think those who are prone to being offended will find something to be offended about. I hear: I'm usually pretty good with this kind of stuff, but right THERE he went too far! Thing is, you've got to take Sacha Baron Cohen or leave him...there's no in between.
Ben Kingsley is an actor I have always admired... so hell, if he signed on and took it as a hoot...that's like The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval to me.
Grade: B
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)
Rated: R
I'm not going to repeat the whole plot synopsis from the original Swedish film, because the Hollywood remake is the same, for the most part, in that respect. So if you didn't see the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo from 2009, go to my review now and check it out. Then come back.
dum de dum...
dum de dum...
I half expected a toned-down version for American audiences, but the remake pulls no punches in recreating those scenes of violence and sexual assault. So the main comparisons to be made are between Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander, and Michael Nyqvist versus Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist.
Rooney Mara's Lisbeth seems more waif-like--more sullen and withdrawn than Noomi Rapace's smoldering, edgier characterization. Her actions in the original felt totally in line with her outward persona. When Rooney Mara's Lisbeth breaks out of her shell and starts kicking some butt, it is something of a surprise that she has it in her. So I'll give the nod to Rapace there.
As to which of them is more appealing in the buff, (if you're at all interested in such things) it's a tossup, because both of them looked like they had been on a thirty day juice fast. Mara has a little more going for her up top, so score one for her. (Actually...two.)
Daniel Craig is a serviceable Blomkvist , but I'm more accustomed to seeing him as an action hero than an intellectual--and since the setting IS Sweden, and Michael Nyqvist IS a dyed-in-the-meatballs SWEDISH PERSON...geez, I gotta go with him.
This 2011 version clocks in at upwards of two and a half hours, but I liked it nonetheless. Mainly because once I've seen a movie, I've forgotten most of what it's about six months later, so it's... like...NEW TO ME!
Grade: B
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THE SITTER (2011)
Rated: R
Noah (Jonah Hill) is a giver. And in the heady opening scene of The Sitter, he is performing a service for his self-absorbed girlfriend who, once she is satisfied, always has an excuse for not wanting to return the favor. It is this very selflessness that will land him in a mess of trouble when he takes on a babysitting job to help his mom out, and runs into the kids from hell.
There's the precocious preteen Blithe (Landry Bender) who likes to play dress-up and drop the totally unexpected F-bomb; the adoptee from El Salvador, Rodrigo, (Kevin Hernandez) who gets off on blowing up toilets by dropping some REAL (cherry) bombs inside them: and 13-year old Slater, (Max Records) a gentler soul confused about his sexual identity.
Things spiral out of control when Noah goes looking to score some coke at the behest of his girlfriend, and out of necessity must take the kids along for the ride. The little darlings behave badly, some drugs are ripped off, a minivan is stolen, and Noah must come up with some big bucks before a cranky drug kingpin (Sam Rockwell) exacts his revenge.
The Sitter is a wild ride, and an enjoyable one. A total grin-fest all the way through. However, the nasty little kids in this movie, who not only stretch, but bulldoze the boundaries of acceptable language and behavior for children onscreen, make The Sitter--ironically--a film that you don't want to take your kids to. But for adults, I'm rating it "highly."
Grade: B +
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LIKE CRAZY (2011)
Rated: PG-13
A British citizen ( Felicity Jones) studying for her degree in Los Angeles falls for an unassuming teaching assistant (Anton Yelchin) and the game is on. It's not a game of catch-me-if-you-can, but of hold-onto-me-if-you-can. When Anna decides to overstay her visa and spend a languorous summer "in bed" with Jacob, complications ensue after she returns home and then attempts to reenter the country later. Seems the immigration authorities don't take kindly to those who bend their rules, and she is unceremoniously put on another plane and sent back home.
Like Crazy is a bittersweet film about long distance relationships, and whether love can conquer all when the odds are stacked against you.
Anna and Jacob try to be realistic about their plight, and become involved with other people (here's Jennifer Lawrence of Winter's Bone and Hunger Games popping up again as Jacob's new squeeze). Until one day Anna sends him a text and says she KNOWS they were meant to be together--you know, like Romeo and Juliet...like peanut butter and jelly were meant to be together--and it convinces him to traverse the Atlantic to be with her in London.
But his visa will run out too.
The question that Like Crazy is posing is whether true love really exists, especially for the very young in a world of so many distractions and temptations. There is no fairy tale ending here--just a realistic one. And by saying that I haven't revealed what ultimately happens to them, because Like Crazy is about complicated emotions, not simple ones.
But it's a beautiful little film--I'll say that.
Grade: B+
Rated: R
STARS: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Rhys Ifans, Chris Pratt, Alison Brie
DIRECTOR: Nicholas Stoller
PRODUCER; Judd Apatow
GENRE: Romantic Comedy
Romantic comedies typically are about two people on the verge of hooking up, while fate and one thing or another prevents them from becoming fully committed until the end. The Five Year Engagement centers primarily on the period after our couple has said "I will," as a precursor to saying "I do." So what we get instead of that romantic tension is the letdown of things beginning to unravel when their careers and other factors are pulling them in different directions. Kind of an anti-romcom in romcom's clothing.
What was hard for me to fathom from the outset was why--other than co-writer and co-star Jason Segel inserting himself opposite Emily Blunt again--these two are together. Segel is chef Tom Solomon, and his betrothed is Emily Blunt's Violet Barnes, a grad student in psychology. Tom is kind of a meatball--not quite on the scale of Kevin James in the TV sitcom King of Queens--but close, because he too is paired with a woman who is way out of his league.(The exquisite Emily Blunt is near the top of the food chain not only in looks, but certain intangibles that you can't quite put your finger (or fingers) on, but would like to!) So I don't buy them as a couple, appearance wise, and I didn't feel that on-screen chemistry either, which can often transcend the surface factors and render them believable.
Tom leaves a promising gig as a chef in San Francisco to follow violet to the frozen tundra of the University of Michigan, where she is in line for a post doctoral position in the psychology department. (Where they think they can draw conclusions about the emotional makeup of test subjects by whether they will or won't eat semi-stale donuts).It's only supposed to be for two years, so they will delay their nuptials a while. But as the film title has already revealed, that time frame will stretch on and on.
The only work in his field Tom can find in Michigan is making sandwiches at a local deli. You can sublimate your own dreams and self-esteem for the benefit of a mate for only so long before some resentment is bound to surface. And when Violet starts spending too much time with her advisor, the pontifical Winton Childs, (Rhys Ifans) and he makes a move on her, that's a recipe for disaster.
Tom and Violet begin to second guess their commitment to each other, and that would have been a good place to end The Five Year Engagement, because these two weren't compatible to begin with. But Judd Apatow productions (Bridesmaids, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, et al.) have developed a reputation for having excess fat that maybe should have been trimmed--and true to form, The Five Year Engagement stretches into a seven course meal that makes us feel bloated at the end, as it slouches toward the conclusion we've already anticipated.
Not to imply that there aren't some laughs here. But the humor is so offbeat--peppered with all the obligatory F-bombs, whether they flow naturally from the material or not--that sometimes the audience laughed, and other times showed no reaction to what was obviously "supposed" to be funny.
Chris Pratt, as Tom's best friend, Alex, and Alison Brie, as his wife, (and Violet's sister) each give good turns here. They are both zany, and seem like two people who are better suited to being together.
But I think what I liked the best was Emily Blunt doing her impression of The Cookie Monster.
Grade: C +
CARNAGE (2011)
Rated: R
Two eleven-year old boys get into an altercation. One swings a stick at the other and knocks out a couple of teeth. The two sets of parents get together and try to smooth things over in a polite and civilized manner. The stage is now set (literally--the film is adapted from a stage play) for some delicious dark humor, and some not so appetizing cobbler dessert, in Roman Polanski's Carnage.
Jodie Foster and John C.. Reilly play the odd couple--Michael and Penelope. She's a liberal minded writer. He's in the household supply business, and something of a hamster hating sociopath. Christopher Waltz and Kate Winslet are the upscale pair--Alan and Nancy. He's a corporate attorney, and she's an investment broker.
Initially, everyone is polite. Then, accusation and counter accusation begin to fly in an escalating manner. Booze is poured. We are treated to the spectacle of Nancy tossing her cookies (actually, the aforementioned apple cobbler) all over her husband and Penelope's precious coffee table books. There are great lines like: Their son is a threat to national security! Then, when the spouses turn their rancor upon each other: If you ask me, the couple is the worst ordeal God has ever inflicted on us.
This is a heavyweight cast, and each of the four turns in a bravura performance. But Jodie Foster's tightly wound Penelope--ready to snap at any moment--is something to behold.
Other than the opening setup and the closing shot, Carnage takes place entirely inside Michael and Penelope's Brooklyn apartment. The intimate, close-range aspect of it is reminiscent of My Dinner With Andre, but with decidedly less civil overtones.
Grade: A
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TAKE SHELTER (2011)
Rated: R
Michael Shannon stars as a normal family man who begins having visions of impending disaster, and starts building an underground bomb shelter in his back yard. His wife (Jessica Chastain) thinks he's going schizo. Is he? Pony up some scratch to see it and find out.
There is a building sense of foreboding in Take Shelter (sort of like the way I feel about the upcoming presidential election). It all leads to an understated, yet potent and portentous ending. Some may be disappointed with it, but those are the folks who need to have everything spelled out for them. Anyway, it all fits into the groove of what is in the back of the minds of a lot of people as the countdown to December 21st, 2012 continues. If anybody is crazy, let's hope it's the Mayans. (Those knuckleheads!)
Take Shelter was on a lot of top ten lists of 2011. It misses mine, but not by a whole lot.
Grade: B +
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IN TIME (2011)
Rated: PG-13
Time is money, that's how the saying goes. In the world of the future, that is literally true. People are genetically programmed to stop aging at 25. Then, an electronic digital clock implanted in your wrist begins to count down the days, hours, and minutes until you reach 26. You've got one year, and it's up to you to beg, borrow, or steal more time--otherwise you'll drop stone cold dead. (Hell of a birthday present, eh?)
Yep, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Those who are short on time live in ghettos and scramble to stay alive day to day. The rich, who have hundreds of years in the bank, live in their own segregated world. Just like now. The currency medium is the only thing that has changed. (The way it works is you drive up to a toll booth, for example, and stick your arm out and the attendant collects a few minutes off your life...yes, you can LITERALLY be nickled and dimed to death!)
Justin Timberlake stars as Will Salas, a poor dude who is bequeathed a hundred years by a guy who no longer wants to live. But Salas is accused of the man's murder, and he's on the run. He's pissed-off about the inherent unfairness of the system, (like the Occupy Wall Street gang) so he buys himself some threads and decides to crash the rich folks' party. There he meets the super hot daughter (Amanda Seyfried) of an extremely wealthy man. She's intrigued by him, and they both end up on the lam, running from the "timekeepers" who are out to bring them in. And that's where In Time kicks into another gear.
The movie opened to mostly lackluster reviews, but I was surprised by how much it grew on me
as it sped toward its climax. (You only want to do that in the movies, of course.)
Grade: B
Rated: R
STARS: Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hanigan, Chris Klein, Eddie Kay Thomas, Eugene Levy, Thomas Ian Nichols, Ali Kobrin
DIRECTOR: Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
GENRE: Gross-Out Comedy
Must be a testament to the fun and good times the original American Pie cast had in making the film, (and its two sequels) because the WHOLE GANG--Jim, Stifler, Oz, Kevin, Finch, Michelle, Jim's dad and Stifler's mom--are back for another go at it in American Reunion.
Staying true to the formula, there are enough gross-out gags and juvenile hijinks to keep your inner adolescent cackling along throughout.
It's been thirteen years since the original film, and as they plan for a high school reunion back at East Great Falls, Michigan, you'd think these these thirty-somethings might have changed and matured some, but it's really just their circumstances that are different. Jim (Jason Biggs) is married to Michelle, (Alyson Hanigan) and they have a two year old son.
Stifler is a yes-man at a financial firm. Oz is a semi-recognizable sportscaster on TV. Finch is a world traveler who regales the girls with tales of his adventures.
But people still remember the embarrassing YouTube video of Jim's
bedroom misadventures, (from the first film) so it's almost mandatory that he winds up in a similarly compromising situation here. Stifler, (Seann William Scott) the heart and soul of the American Pie franchise with his wild and crazy antics, is obligated to pull another doozy of a caper out of his butt (and he does--in a manner of speaking). And so on.
The subplot involves 18-year old Kara, (Ali Kobrin) the little girl Jim used to babysit
back in the day. She's all grown up in a BIG way, and now she's got a major crush on him. We will see how things have been developing with Kara, in a madcap sequence that begins with her being drunk, and tearing off her clothes, and coming onto the now husband and dad, Jim, (always the hapless fall- guy) in the car as he is innocently trying to take her home.
The various inside jokes in American Reunion will fall flat if you haven't seen the original American Pie. You can still get off on American Reunion if you didn't, but it's like eating apple pie without the whipped cream.(And you wouldn't laugh--or groan--at what I just said unless you HAD seen the original!)
Relationships will be tested, and some will be rekindled, but through it all, we sense that things will right themselves in the end-- because despite all the raunch, this film has a good heart, and that goes a long ways with me--even if it is all the familiar scenarios with an updated twist.
Grade: B
Rated: PG-13
STARS: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Banks
DIRECTOR: Gary Ross
GENRE: Drama, Action-Adventure, Sci-fi
Normally, I wouldn't lower myself to see a film aimed at 15 year-old girls, but I wanted to see for myself if all the hype and the hoopla surrounding The Hunger Games--the screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling teen novel--was justified. I didn't read the book, but in my book, a movie should stand (or stagger) on its own merits anyway.
The brief synopsis: In the dystopian future kingdom of Paner, a yearly "special" Olympics--of sorts--has been devised, which pits twenty-four young people between the ages of twelve and eighteen against each other in a battle to the death. Only one of them will come out alive and be declared the winner. (This person gets that stupid looking Mirabal Trophy from Dancing With The Stars ...NOT!.) The games serve as an ongoing punishment (and a way of keeping the uppities in their place) to the twelve outlying districts of the kingdom for an uprising against the all powerful central government, headed by President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Each district must cough up one male and one female gladiator to compete in the televised gore fest, which employs low-tech weaponry with blades, or bows and arrows, to maximize the up close and personal aspect of the killing.
Our heroine, from District 12--which appears to be the poorest and most downtrodden of the suburbs--is the brave and resourceful Katniss Everdeen, played with effectiveness by Jennifer Lawrence, (Winter's Bone) as the blue-eyed Everygirl who rises to the challenge when it's do or die. Her saving grace is that she's a crack shot with a bow and arrow. And she's our hero because, unlike those other crass kids who just want to survive, she only kills in self defense--when there is no other way out. (Back home, I noticed, she's not as compassionate--she goes deer hunting, and likes to shoot other types of small defenseless furry creatures betwixt the eyes.)
Alliances form among the contestants (like in Survivor, or Big Brother) and Katniss and her male counterpart from District 12, Peeta Mellark, (Josh Hutcherson) are there for each other. Will they make it to the end? Will romance bloom amidst the pervasive carnage? And what of the rule that only one teen must survive?
The first half of The Hunger Games drags, as it's partly exposition, and then the mental and physical preparation the kids must undergo to give themselves a fighting chance. I could sense the mostly teen audience at the showing I attended chomping at the bit like the ancient Romans in the Colosseum--because, let's face it, the video games and comic books they are into are mostly violent in nature.
The second half of the movie gave them their fix.
Woody Harrelson brings a touch of levity to the grisly proceedings as the drunken sot "mentor" to Katniss and Peeta, (gotta love those names) who dispenses mostly thanks-but-no-thanks advice on their upcoming ordeal.
Oh, and you've got to see the most MENACING looking beard in the history of filmdom--sported by Wes Bentley, as the organizer of the games. The sharp-edged design of it--as if he were wearing cutlery on his cheeks--is so heavy handed that it's funny, and it brings me to a pet-peeve about sci-fi films. You know, when the space ships that the invading aliens are traveling in are designed to look like nasty, evil creatures themselves--so there's no second guessing for us as to what they're all about. But I don't think the aliens would advertise their nastiness in such a blatantly obvious manner. In reality, evil often comes in the guise of a beautiful woman-- like a Casey Anthony--or that mass murderer in Norway with the movie star good looks.
And while the dystopian image of a future world--the one depicted in The Hunger Games--seems heartless and cold, that same world exists today. And has existed among our species since pretty near the beginning. A world where innocents--who have no personal reason to hate their adversaries because they've never even met them--are pitted against each other in a kill-or-be-killed spectacle coordinated by governments. Often for no better reason than to gain some strategic political advantage in the world.
It's called war.
Grade: C +
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