Category Archives: Movies

Hmm another boxing film? Is another needed? Despite my initial reaction “The Fighter” has a story and cast that rises above the typical pugilistic fanfare. Set and filmed in Lowell, Mass., it is based on the true story of Dicky and Micky Ward, half-brothers who boxed as pro welterweights in subsequent decades. Upon retirement, the older one, Dicky, slid into crack addiction and landed in jail, but resurfaced in time to train his younger brother to a WBU title fight. The film depicts the brothers’ humble beginnings, their neurotic parents and dopey sisters on the road to Micky’s attempt to fulfill a dream that Dicky never did. (It’s rated a strong R for language, drug content and some good boxing action, though there’s seems a bit more outside drama than in the ring.)

Christian Bale does a great job as the quirky and stoned-out Dicky, while Mark Wahlberg is comfortable in the shoes of Micky, the fighter struggling with losses and thoughts of quitting. The rest of the cast is terrific, too, with Melissa Leo (of “Frozen River” acclaim) as the overly involved chain-smoking mother, and convincing new faces who play the brothers’ seven dumpy sisters. Perhaps Amy Adams, is the biggest surprise, as Micky’s tough sailor-tongued girlfriend who bumps heads with the tightly wound family. It’s hard to believe this is the same Adams who’s known for the wholesome roles in “Enchanted,” “Julie & Julia” and the upcoming “Muppets.” In “The Fighter,” she refreshingly branches out to partake in a role much grittier.

“The Fighter” is an entertaining flick, made better by the very authentic feel it generates thanks to the superb performances, script and fact that it’s filmed on location with input from the actual brothers. Mark Wahlberg said he trained four years for the role, which isn’t too hard to believe. The movie’s already received six Golden Globe nominations and four SAG nominations, and is likely to take a few home. I wouldn’t say it’s the best movie of the year, but it does pack a pretty good punch. Continue reading →

I seem to have had my fix of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, this past weekend: first in “The Social Network” and then in an interview of him on “60 Minutes.” The 26-year-old billionaire is doing quite well, thank you very much. He seemed a bit more relaxed in the “60 Minutes” interview than in past ones and wasn’t sweating it as much over the security of people’s info on the Facebook site as he was in Kara Swisher’s longer, tougher interview with him in June. Though it still remains the biggest concern for users.

On “60 Minutes” he said Facebook doesn’t sell your info and advertisers don’t get access to it. Though applications on Facebook have been known to. “It’s really an important thing for everyone to just be thinking about. Privacy and making sure people have control of their information is I think one of the most fundamental things on the Internet,” Zuckerberg said. He went on to discuss Facebook’s newest projects, which are steering the company to get more involved in your life: in sharing more activities, grouping your friends more around your interests, and in getting the real you more out there etc.

As for “The Social Network,” it’s an entertaining look at the start-up of Facebook. Aaron Sorkin’s script hums along with fast-paced dialogue of Mark’s character and his buddies at Harvard and the beginnings of the site. At the crux of the film, are the snags and enemies Mark’s actions make along the way, notably one lawsuit that accuses him of stealing the site’s idea and another for ditching his CFO. The film switches back and forth entertainingly between the two lawsuits and Mark and Facebook’s rise. The best part seems to be Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of the prodigy, which is convincing and at times quite amusing. I’m not sure it’s really the very best movie of the year, which others claim, but it’s a timely hit on an Internet craze that’s still exploding all around us. Continue reading →

When news came out that Valerie Plame was outed as a CIA operative by Robert Novak in a Washington Post op-ed in July 2003, it was a terrible feeling. I worked at The Post and was surprised that editors hadn’t caught it and/or didn’t take it out. Novak was beyond the pale to have named her because of what some administration official had leaked. I had sympathy for her life and ruined career but didn’t know much beyond that. For sure, Plame and her husband Joe Wilson’s fight against the Bush administration for being, they believed, the source of her outing (presumably as payback for his suggestion that White House intelligence was false) was an uphill, unpopular battle then. And many criticized their “conspiracy” theory and the Vanity Fair article and photo of them sitting in a convertible with Plame in scarf and sunglasses. But in the end their firestorm did eventually unearth who exposed her: the deputy secretary of state at the State Department.

Regardless where you stood then, “Fair Game” is a captivating and powerful movie. Part spy thriller and part political expose, it holds one’s attention from start to finish. Following events leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, it reminds us of the trumped-up charges on weapons of mass destruction that the Bush administration made as its reason for going to war. Reliving it will make you feel as mad as hell but should be required viewing for all Americans.

With good performances from Naomi Watts and Sean Penn (even Sam Shepard makes a small appearance!), director Doug Liman’s taut film moves beyond a typical pulled-from-the-headlines story to being an intriguing chronicle of the times and story of an agent’s life blown. I hesitated to see the movie, since it had been so prevalent in the news, but it turned out to be more than just a plodding recap, delving deeper behind the intense consequences at stake.

ps. Check out Valerie Plame’s comments on the movie here and The Washington Post’s thrashing of it here. Continue reading →

“Restrepo” is author Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington’s war documentary of a year with an American Army platoon at an outpost in the Korengal Valley, one of the most dangerous places of fighting in the Afghanistan war. It’s been mentioned as a real-life kind of “Hurt Locker,” in reference to this year’s Oscar-winning war picture. But “Restrepo” isn’t about a bomb squad; it’s about a platoon setting up and defending a remote mountainous outpost called “Restrepo,” named in memory of a medic killed there.

I was a bit nervous to see it before going to the documentary, but I wanted to get a real slice of the war and what these soldiers are going through. The film made me jumpy for sure; the enemy isn’t really ever seen, but the gunfire comes from anywhere at any time. The U.S. soldiers there endured on average four firefights a day and at times thought their outpost, Restrepo, would be overrun by the Taliban. When the platoon goes on a mission outside of their fort things get scarier and I jumped in my seat at one point.

The soldiers’ narration and their lives at Restrepo are revealing and draw viewers into their world, making you feel as if you’re experiencing war firsthand. The view the film leaves of the Korengal Valley, where more than 40 soldiers have been killed since 2005, is disheartening; The mountainous region and the relentless enemy make the war seem futile in Afghanistan. Ultimately, the military decided to pull out of the Korengal Valley in April 2010. Will the rest of the American troops in Afghanistan soon do the same? Continue reading →

The news this week that actress Rooney Mara, at far left, has won the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Hollywood movie version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is a tad mind-boggling since no one much has heard of her work, unless you saw this year’s version of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Apparently the director of “Dragon Tattoo” met her during the upcoming movie about Facebook and says she’s great. After reading two of the books in Stieg Larsson’s triology, I have to say Rooney Mara doesn’t exactly come to mind as playing the whip-smart, computer hacker ruffian that is the heroin Lisbeth Salander. I’ve seen the Swedish movie version of “Dragon” and actress Noomi Rapace, above right, comes across as highly believable. I couldn’t believe how much Rapace seemed to embody the tough Salander. Will Rooney Mara be able to transform? Or is the U.S. version just going to be a cotton-candy adaptation of the book?

Remember there was a time when author Anne Rice was livid that Tom Cruise got the part of Lestat in 1994’s “Interview With the Vampire.” She said he was obviously “no” Lestat. But apparently after seeing the movie, Rice changed her mind and thought Tom was great with ole Brad Pitt as Louis. Perhaps she was just rolling with the publicity machine. But perhaps an open mind should be kept with Rooney as Salander. Sigh. If only it were that easy. Continue reading →

Maybe it seems a bit surprising that “The Expendables” ($35 million) beat out “Eat, Pray, Love” ($23.7 million) this past weekend at the box office – just because the place was packed to the gills even a half hour before the show. Gosh weren’t there more chicks there than Lilith Fair? And besides how many weeks was Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 memoir on the bestseller list anyways …. like forever? I mean Sly’s “Expendables” looks from clips rather expendable, doesn’t it? Bunch of action-guy old farts. Sure, give me the animated “Super Friends” any day; you know, Aqua Man, Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman and Robin etc. (Especially Aqua …) But Sly, Arnold and Willis? — oh I’ll take a pass.

Anyways, “Eat, Pray, Love” was not really a painful affair, guys. It was quite entertaining to a point. I sat in an aisle where a number of women were heard to say they had read part of the book but not the whole (whiny) thing. I had read part of it too and I really did mean to finish it. Anyways, Julia Roberts does a good job as “Liz,” and the cinematography of Italy, India and Bali were quite fetching. I guess I liked Italy and India but started to tire around the Bali part. Perhaps, I admit, James Franco early in the pic did more for me than Javier Bardem near the end; I know that’s not the popularly held view among women in the age group of the book’s fanbase, but it’s sort of true. After all there’s good reason the young-ish Franco was on “General Hospital” and why Sean Penn kissed him in “Milk.” Think about it.

Anyways, the “E, P, L” soundtrack is a pleasant surprise. Two Neil Young songs! Two Eddie Vedder songs! One Sly and the Family Stone, and one Marvin Gaye! When you hear “Heart of Gold” come on during the movie – it’s just awesome.

I know some critics have clobbered “E, P, L” for being whiny, priviledged, soft, simplistic, self-absorbed etc. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it “torture” to watch. I could think of other movies much more tortuous. I’m sure it wasn’t as full a picture or as witty as the book. But the movie followed the remnants: a women’s journey after her painful divorce. Like the book, I found some authentic substance and some good chick flick escapism to it. Continue reading →

Inception is definitely the blockbuster action thriller of the summer, and is raking in at the box office, especially with the Gen X’ers etc. It’s built around the clever plot of an undercover gang who wire themselves up to people sleeping in order to get into their unconscious minds (their dream space) to extract and plant information. The movie looks and plays out pretty cool and the visual effects are great. Leo DiCaprio, and especially Marion Cotillard, are effective as the married couple in dream limbo.

It’s quite an involving, semi-complicated movie, where paying careful attention helps, while you try and figure out what’s going on. It’s not That difficult, but it keeps you working at it. I was trying to listen intently but found some of the dialogue drowned out by the pounding background music. And half way in, I started to daydream about my stay at the beach and what else I had to do, and sooner or later I realized I wasn’t concentrating about the movie anymore, and had missed a couple of scenes. But the movie goes on for so long, it doesn’t seem to matter. The pounding continues! And the ending and dream finally, finally come around. Awake, I say, let me out of here. Continue reading →

So what did I think I’d get out of it “Splice” — the movie about a biotech experiment gone awry? Was it that I thought this lab-manufactured creature was good for a summer scare? Or that it would be an escape from everything on the mind?

True, I don’t normally see many of these kinds of flicks. But my spouse helped narrow it down among choices and I thought it might be fun to be scared with some alien type creature or a test-tube deviant. The local newspaper gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I repeat 4 out of 5 stars. And after all, hadn’t I seen and liked the sci-fi movie “District 9” with the prawn-like creatures forced to live in slum conditions on Earth? I could handle seeing the prawns!

I was aware too that the talented Canadian actress/director Sarah Polley was in “Splice”; she had been heralded as far back as 1997 for her performance in “The Sweet Hereafter” and even directed Julie Christie(!) in 2006’s “Away From Her” (yes that Julie, the one and only LAR-a from “Docter Zhivago”). Both Polley’s films are sad along with her other tear-jerker film “The Secret Life of Words” with Tim Robbins in 2005. Good luck seeing that without a Kleenex. But alas, what held her to this DNA scare flick? Wasn’t she Oscar material? I didn’t realize Adrian Brody was in it, too. I haven’t been moved by a performance of his since 2002’s “The Pianist.”

But here they both were in “Splice,” playing a scientist couple who go over the bio-ethical line to make a part-human, part-creature species in the race to solve diseases. They and viewers should know better! It’s no use! The scientific egos and calamities! The lab concoction too often than naught goes amiss or falls on the floor. Then all hell breaks loose. Didn’t they see “The Fly” from 1986? … where Jeff Goldbloom grows some mean back hairs and starts to buzz after dabbling around on a science experiment. Apparently they didn’t because Dren, their beloved spliced DNA creature, made in secrecy, sends them a bit over the edge. Dren, Dren, Oh Dren …. !

But this movie lacks opportunities of intrigue and suspense. More disturbing and creepy than truly scary and riveting, “Splice” throws together a little bit of everything: gils, wings, tails, stingers, co-mingling species and biotech companies with nefarious aspirations, even a sequel tie-in; it’s a slippery ride but comes off a bit too loopy without enough spine. Continue reading →

The football movie “The Blind Side” continues to rake in at the box office. At last look, it had passed the $225 million mark and was still going strong, long since its Nov. 20, 2009 release. It’s quite the small-movie phenom of the year, fueled by its amazing and true rags-to-riches story and its evangelical backing. About a big African American kid, one of 12 in his family, whose early years are horrific growing up on the rough side of Memphis, with a crack-addicted mother, and a father he doesn’t know. In and out of foster homes, “Big Mike” is intermittently homeless and sleeping on the couches of acquaintances when he can, one of whom takes him to a private Christian high school, which enrolls him on the athletic coach’s word. On a snowy night, walking back to school in shorts, Mike catches the eye of a rich white family that takes him in and helps him with school and to play football. He comes to play left tackle, protecting the quarterback’s “blind side” with such skill and power, that he draws the attention of college coaches who come clamoring to have him play.

The movie is a feel-good experience, with a wholesome view of the family and life that adopts Mike. Sandra Bullock, as the no nonsense mom who shepherds Mike, and country singer Tim McGraw play the parents. It’s definitely a good, strong character for Bullock, who plays it well. The movie is enjoyable, combining nice family and sports scenes in Mike’s rise out of his circumstances. Though I found it rather sugary, and a bit Disney like, it still is an inspiring a story. It seems Mike is made a bit simplistic in the movie, docile with a low IQ, and parts of the gritty stuff and prejudices seemed airbrushed lightly over. Still the photos of the real people at the end of the movie lend to its strength as a true story; that Mike Oher went on to play offensive tackle this year as a rookie for the Baltimore Ravens is amazing. See this recent New York Times story.

Interesting to note, Oher said he mostly liked the movie but said his character was portrayed as too stupid and his football skills were misrepresented in it though he didn’t elaborate. (He did go on to make the Honor Roll at Ole Miss a couple times.) Oher doesn’t seem to care a lot about the fuss over “Blind Side,” which was based on the 2006 bestselling book by Michael Lewis. Apparently the film’s budget was a mere $29 million, which Sandra Bullock took a pay cut for and agreed instead to receive a percentage of the profits. Seems like a bright idea now. Continue reading →

Of course, I had to see “The Road” because of the intriguing Cormac McCarthy book, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Most seem to know what it’s about: a father and a son trying to survive after some unknown apocalyptical disaster has gutted civilization. The father and boy are on a road going south to the coast, where presumably they might find more food and have a better chance at survival. But along the way there are roving bands of bad guys the father and boy try to avoid, who take prisoners and eat people to get by. It’s a world reduced to savagery and a food-to-mouth existence, where the boy worries if they are still the “good” guys who won’t resort to cannabalism, and his father assures him that they are, that they’re “carrying the fire.”

The movie is a somber affair. The wife, played by Charlize Theron in flashbacks, decides life post-apocalypse isn’t worth living and does herself in before their journey (no great secret if you’ve read the book). Viggo Mortensen, as the father is looking old and scraggily in this, but is excellent as is the boy played by Kodi Smit-McPhee. The cinematography is especially affecting, with scenes of an ashen, dead landscape, where rotting trees split and fall in deafening crescendo, and broken-into cars and houses are left by the wayside. The area around Mount St. Helens serves as a haunting backdrop to the film’s shots of a post-apocalyptic world.

The movie follows the book to a tee. I was sure they would mess with it, but even the ending is like the book’s. Because of the book, I knew where the scary parts would be. The movie seems much more scary than depressing. God the cannibals! You’ll never want to go down into the cellar again. Why does Viggo do it?!&%! Run for Christ sakes!

The Washington Post and L.A. Times pretty much clobbered the movie (the N.Y. Times a bit less so). The Post’s Ann Hornaday called it a “thin, hopelessly mannered story” — “one long dirge … marking the death of hope and the leaching of all that is bright and good from the world.” The L.A. Times’ Kenneth Turan said it was good at horrifying and depressing us but had little else to offer. I thought it faithful to the book and was a pretty affecting tale, a warning of sorts about nuclear annihilation. It reminded me a little of the 1983 TV event, “The Day After.” It also had redemptive qualities in the bonding of the father and son, and in the overall fight between good and the forces of chaos and evil. The struggle to get to the sea and the ending there are subtle but compelling. It might not be an Oscar contender, but “The Road” is no slouch of a movie.

ps. Watch for Robert Duvall as the old nearly blind man they encounter on the road (barely can tell it’s him), and thankfully Guy Pearce comes in at the end. I can’t help but quote from “The Road” these days in asking, “Are you carrying the fire?” Continue reading →